and all that could have been

a video i made -- monterey auto week

2011-12-29T09:42:00.000-08:00

Here is a little video I made from the footage I shot during Monterey Auto Week in August 2011. But this hardly does justice to the truly amazing experience. Enjoy!

thanks steve

2011-10-08T22:45:00.000-07:00

I received this week's BusinessWeek magazine today (yes I get the hard copy). The entire issue is a tribute to Steve Jobs from beginning to end.

I'd highly recommend getting a copy, keeping it, and sharing it with your kids someday. He'll be remembered with the greats like Einstein and Edison.

I'm still processing the loss of such an inspirational human being, visionary and creative genius. Over the past couple of days I've read tons of excellent articles about Steve. Rather than make my own attempt, I'll likely compile a list of my favorites and post them here.

my danville concours d'elegance experience and pictures are on egarage.com

2011-09-29T22:07:00.001-07:00

Something cool happened the other day.

The "automotive storytellers" over at eGarage.com reached out and asked me to tell my story about the Danville Concours D'Elegance.

I've been enamored with their style (especially their videos like the one below) since prior to the site officially launching, so I was flattered when they extended the invitation to have a few of my words published on their site.

Check out my article and let me know what you think:
Danville Concours D'Elegance | eGarage - by Vincent Chiaro

And to whet your appetite, here's the eGarage teaser video:

pebble beach concours weekend without the pebble part

2011-08-29T20:56:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago, I took a couple days off work and headed down to Monterey for Pebble Beach Concours except I skipped Pebble Beach this year. I went for the first time back in 2009 but last year I was in Istanbul at the time so I missed the whole thing.

Skipping Pebble wasn't a big deal. I mean, it's pretty awesome to be surrounded by millionaires, billionaires, and their toys / investments but there is honestly so much happening in Monterey that weekend that you can pick and choose any number of events and still have a great time.

This year, I went to: Concorso Italiano, RM Auctions, Bonham Auctions, Gooding and Company Auctions (including a seminar on vintage car values), and saw some historic racing at Laguna Seca. I even crashed the tail end of the Quail Lodge event after Bonham's but they were getting mostly packed up at that point. At some point I think I need to make it to the McCall Motorwork Revival which combines planes and cars in one event.

If all you care about are the pictures, you can find my highlight album here:

Best of 2011 Monterey Car Week

I'll also try to post some more videos soon, but here is quickie of the Porshce 918 hybrid:

Here's what I learned:

Cars can be an investment vehicle just like stocks, bonds, or artwork.
Very few modern cars will ever appreciate in value. There are a couple of exceptions, and they are all extremely rare vehicles.
The folks who take this seriously know the risk/return ratios for all the cars.
9 times out of 10, you'll be better off buying a car already restored by a reputable professional than having something restored (or restoring it yourself.)
If you're serious about buying a car at auction, get there early, check it out, talk to lots of folks, and ask to drive it.
The serious enthusiasts ship their cars all over the world for events like this.
Be ready for opportunities but be patient. A down economy might present some once-in-a-lifetime chances to buy a car, property, etc at discount prices.
Strike up conversations with random people. You never know what kind of interesting stories they might have. People are generally nice and happy to chat at these events, especially about cars.
It's nice to capture these cars on camera, but sort of a pain in the ass to carry a camera around everywhere.
There are very few "barn finds" left in the world and they are often more trouble than they're worth.
If you want to buy a vintage car, buy something that you can park in a garage and drive when you want. Some of the massive old "gangster" style cars from the 1920s are totally ridiculous and I don't see how you could really enjoy them.
It's great to see people still racing some of these old cars. Seeing them "battle tested" rather than restored to better than new condition is more interesting to me.

I also realized that I love the classic Gulf color scheme on just about any car. Perhaps a future look for my Elise?

From Best of 2011 Monterey Car Week

eGarage.com and other sites have tons of good coverage and photos from the weekend if you're interested.

Turkey Photo Gallery

2010-09-08T21:57:00.001-07:00

The photos included in the blog posts below were just a small sample from what I shot on the trip. Here is a link to my complete photo gallery:

2010 Turkey photo gallery

Day 12 - Tourism in Ankara

2010-08-27T21:54:00.000-07:00

Our final full day in Turkey spanned both Ankara and Istanbul and we didn't have any business items so there was more opportunity to do some tourist things. Professors Toppel and Alpin had organized some stuff which was nice so that we didn't have to think and figure things out on our own for the last day.

From 2010 Turkey

Ataturk Mausoleum - This is a memorial tomb dedicated to the modern founder of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He is such a national hero to the people of Turkey and this monument reflects that. Picture George Washington multiplied by 100. The mausoleum was well done and they have military guards similar to those at Buckingham Palace in the UK (they don't move.) We did get the opportunity to see the changing of the guards. They are in different uniforms for the different branches of the military (Navy, Air Force, Army...)

From 2010 Turkey

Museum of Anatolian Civilizations - After the mausoleum we headed over to this museum for the rest of the afternoon before catching our flight back to Istanbul. This was definitely a cool and well designed museum with tons of ancient artifacts from the area. Probably most interesting though were the buildings the museum was in, which were build in 1471. The museum covers history from the Palaeolithic Age (8000 BC) through the Roman and Byzantine Period.

From 2010 Turkey

We were pretty much free to explore the museum at our own pace even though we did have a guide with us. But a few of us ventured outside to the courtyard, attracted by the sound of roaring fighter jets. Since Turkey's independence day was happening in 3 days, the military was preparing for the festivities. We saw hundreds of military personnel practicing their marches (many streets were closed and traffic was horrible), tanks, jeeps, and the Turkish equivalent of the Blue Angels. Military service is mandatory (18 months) for males in Turkey.

Later that day we took the bus to the Ankara airport, which was huge, new, and surprisingly empty. I'm guessing they built it for future capacity. The flight back to Istanbul was pretty uneventful except for one person arriving at the airport only to realize they'd left their passport back at the hotel. Somehow they were able to take a taxi back to the hotel and still make it on our flight. In Istanbul we were just staying at the Radisson Hotel by the airport on that last night since many of us had early flights back to the US the next morning.

After some confusion with the hotel shuttle, we finally made it there although some of the students gave up and took a taxi.

Neville, Harsha, Caroline and I had one final dinner at the hotel, which turned out to be one of the more expensive dinners on the trip. We were shocked at the prices, especially considering that their outdoor seating in the courtyard was directly in the flight path and the food was only so-so. We were all pretty sad that the trip was coming to an end. We ate and basically had an early night.

I felt like I bonded with the people on this trip in a way that just isn't possible when you're in a classroom setting. Even the people I've worked with on group projects as part of the MBA program don't feel as close as the people I travelled with for two weeks. I've often felt that the networking aspect of a part-time MBA program is one of the weaker parts (as compared to full time MBA programs) but between the LInC cohort and this study abroad trip I feel that I've built some lifelong friendships.

Day 11 - Stopping by the US Embassy

2010-08-26T21:15:00.000-07:00

This was our first full day in Ankara and we had two visits on the agenda: Lockheed and the US Embassy.

Lockheed has a tiny office of about five people in Turkey, in fact, they decided we should meet at the Hilton Hotel in order to accommodate 26 MBA students. One of our classmates works for Lockheed in the US, so we had a good connection and rapport with the folks presenting.

The Lockheed presentation covered the political climate in Turkey but I was more interested to learn about their products. The F16 was first produced in Turkey in 1978 and Lockheed continues to see a big future in Turkey. Turkey has a strong military (when you border 9 different countries, that's probably a good idea) and buys a fair number of products from Lockheed. Of course this business has a long sales cycle, often 5 years or more. Another interesting tidbit was that the planes Lockheed sells to other countries (these sales must be approved by Congress) actually are not quite the same as the planes Lockheed sells to the US military. Again, probably a wise business practice when selling weapons (save the best for yourself)! There have been some changes in the access Lockheed sales folks have to generals and the various government decision makers that makes it more difficult for them to secure sales in this relationship driven culture.

I was bummed to find out that their cheapest product is around $50 million, although they did promise to include free shipping.

The US Embassy was interesting mainly because I'd never been to an embassy in a foreign country. Security was tight and we had to go through in groups of only five people at a time. We couldn't bring in any electronics; no phones, no cameras, nothing. During our visit we spoke with folks from the political department, the commerce department, the department of agriculture (USDA), and the commercial services department. We covered a whole bunch of topics, including many we'd already discussed on our trip, but it was cool to get the perspective from Americans living in Turkey. In general, their jobs seemed like they involved writing a bunch of reports...which sounds sort of boring but everyone we spoke to really seemed to love their jobs. (Incidentally, someone from our group confirmed that these foreign service jobs are pretty tough to get.) Basically, they said their job is to "add value on top of the stuff you see on CNN."

On a side note, our visit to the US Embassy was typically American and they were the only place we visited that didn't offer us Turkish tea or water. (And I assume they weren't observing Ramadan.)

We had some down time in the afternoon so I went off on my own in search of postcards. Ankara must not be very touristy (or at least the part we were in) because I walked for blocks and never found any.

That evening we had an organized dinner at the Washington Restaurant with the folks from Lockheed. It was a good meal and I was fortunate to be seated across from Marty who always keeps things entertaining.

Based on the recommendation from the Lockheed folks we walked down to a pub for a few beers but ultimately migrated to a bar called the Fat Cat almost right behind our hotel. Since it was really our last night together as a group, nearly everyone came out and we had a pretty big night. One interesting tidbit from the bar was that we were able to negotiate our massive bar tab when it came time to pay. Granted, we were pretty much the only ones in the bar, but we did drink a lot and I don't think you'd be able to haggle on the price at a bar in the US.

Day 10 - Off to Ankara

2010-08-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning we reunited with our hosts from Duzce University and visited Standard Profil, a company that makes weather stripping seals for cars. Even though I'm a huge gearhead, I'd never given much thought to the seals around the windows, doors, and trunk so I was surprised to see this one component of a vehicle was such a massive operation. We had a chance to tour their factory where we saw raw rubber material being made into seals for a variety of modern cars from GM, Fiat, VW, Porsche, etc. It's a little odd that the region is known for agriculture, yet there is this large manufacturing plant here. It was cool to learn that they produce all their own electricity and heat at the plant using cogeneration (burning natural gas in essentially a gas turbine engine to create electricity and heat as a by-product.)

Standard Profil has been around since 1977 and is a leader in their industry. They made a smart move a few years ago and applied the diversification practices used in investing to their customers. Previously, GM was their largest customer, but now they get approximately equal business from VW, GM, Renault, and Fiat. Given GM's bankruptcy, this was a wise move and showed good management. Standard Profil is focused on their customers...they have a specific niche and they do that job well rather than trying to expand into many different parts of automobile manufacturing. When asked how they get feedback for improving their products, they indicated it was mostly from the OEMs who aggregate customer feedback and share it with their suppliers.

We left the factory and headed to a meeting with the Duzce Governor and Mayor. Given our past meeting with the governor of another small town, I expected this would be similarly "quaint". But when we arrived, it was a full-on press conference with journalists and cameras! I guess a group of MBA students from Silicon Valley meeting with the Governor is a pretty big deal. It was a very formal event, including the proper seating positions. I ended up being seated right next to the dean of Duzce University, who also served as a translator for the event. As expected, the entire visit was published in the local paper the following day. You can find the article here. (Notice me sitting taking notes in the second picture.)

Even though it was Ramadan, the Governor offered us juice and chocolates but not until after his assistant had gone around with lemon hand sanitizer to everyone in the room. Since we were sitting in his office, seating 26 of us was a little awkward but we made it work. The office was very new and nicely decorated. The Governor and Mayor answered a lot of questions and shared their insights with us. Some of the key topics were:

- Priorities for the region: Education, proper development of industrialization, addressing needs of the young generation.

- Common characteristics of successful business leaders in the region: Willingness to accept and take risk, courageous, keep track of world events, competent in analyzing how their business fits in.

- View of the US: Friends, important for the US to have friendly Islamic countries like Turkey, government style in the US is similar to the Ottoman Empire, people in the US don't have the correct view of what's happening in the world, the US isn't a different world -- it's part of the world.

I also came away with an appreciation for how the Turkish government functions. They have this local and central government (similar to our local and federal) but I think it's better in some ways. For example, the governor is appointed by the central government for a term of 5 years (for that specific region) while the mayor is elected by the people. They work together and there really is no hierarchy between them. One of the benefits of this is that the governor can make some less popular, but needed, decisions without worrying about being re-elected.

After the governor's office (where we again received nice gifts!) we proceeded to the Duzce Art (vocational) school to see some of the local craftspeople working. They were doing a bunch of activities such as painting plates, making jewelry, and creating what I called "oil and vinegar art". All the MBA students had a chance to do some of this too and the oil and vinegar art was by far the most popular. Basically, you had a tray of water and into this tray you splattered some different colored paints. Then you could use various tools to swirl them around or make interesting designs, but it was still entirely liquid even though they didn't mix together. Once you had a design you liked, you simply laid a piece of paper on top of the liquid and the color and "image" was transferred over. Pretty cool!

From 2010 Turkey

We had a few minutes to kill after the art school and luckily there was an outdoor bazar happening nearby. This gave us the opportunity to see how the locals shopped since the grand bazar back in Istanbul is very touristy. It was sort of like a farmers market in the sense that there was a lot of fresh food sold (including some tasty, salted string cheese stuff) but there were also staples like cleaning products, clothing, and bathroom supplies. Unlike in Istanbul, probably 98% of the women I saw at the bazar wore headscarves.

From 2010 Turkey

We ate lunch at the Berceste Restaurant which was OK but I didn't think it was amazing. They did have good baklava for dessert though!

After lunch we piled back into the bus for the long drive to Ankara, Turkey's capital. We arrived at the Rixos Hotel which is super trendy even though the customer service was less than stellar. They had metal detectors at the front door and the security guys in front of the hotel used mirrors to check for bombs under every car that pulled up. I'm not sure if this is standard but we later found out the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan was staying there at the same time so they might have had increased security. Most of the folks in the hotel lobby were in business suits so as MBA students we felt a bit under-dressed.

The hotel rooms were by far the fanciest we stayed in during the trip. When you put your key into the light switch, the whole room came to life including the curtains which were motorized and programed to open when you entered the room. The photos below can explain the modern style of the room better than I can.

From 2010 Turkey

For dinner we met up with a Turkish friend of Andrea's who had lived in San Francisco for three years. It was great to have a local guide us and take us out for dinner. We drove about 20 minutes from the hotel to a part of Ankara that felt modern and posh, sort of like Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. The restaurants and bars were trendy and there were nice Porsches, Mercedes, and BMWs parked out front. Something that was particularly cool, but would never work in the US, is that when we arrived our host Cem spoke to the taxi driver and of course we asked how much we owed. He replied telling us nothing...that we'd pay the driver after he comes back to get us after dinner. What? Really? They exchanged cell phone numbers and off the taxi went. Sure enough, when we called him later he came back for us.

At dinner Cem asked "Do you trust me to do the ordering?" and of course we said yes so he got us an awesome spread of amazing food. The most interesting thing was a raw lamb dish in lettuce wraps. The lamb was heavily spiced and ground up. Even though it sounded gross it was actually very good.

Cem is obviously pretty well connected since he pulled some strings to get Andrea a room upgrade at the hotel and managed to get a few free rounds of drinks at the bar after dinner. This is also part of the Turkish culture. They're very relationship driven and you go out of your way to help out friends, as he was doing for us. This is something I'd like to adopt when I get back home. I feel like our lives are often so busy that you don't go out of the way to help people or even to really engage with people.

After dinner we headed across the road to a bar where once again we were able to sit outdoors in the warm climate. We proceeded to have a few more drinks, include the findik (pronounced 'fun dick'!) shots which are some type of hazelnut liquor (hazelnuts are a big part of the agriculture business in Turkey.) This was another one of the most fun nights I had on the trip.

Day 9 - Duzce University

2010-08-24T14:31:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was a pretty long day of riding the bus as we headed out to Duzce University, which is about 3 hours away from Istanbul. We had a huge bus for our 26 people so basically everyone got their own row of seats which made things more comfortable. But I was sad to leave Istanbul and the Point Hotel which had begun to feel familiar.

On the way to the university we had a planned lunch stop sort of in the middle of nowhere but which turned out to be one of the best meals I had in Turkey. Since it was still Ramadan and this part of the country is much more religious than Istanbul, our group was literally the only people in the restaurant. Aside from the great food, another memorable moment was crashing the bus. The road to the restaurant had this archway we had to drive under and even though the bus driver got out and checked, we still didn't fit. Whoops!

From 2010 Turkey

After lunch we continued to the university, which is almost brand new (built in 2006) and focused on agriculture (think UC Davis). The first stop was the Herbarium which is like a plant museum. Next, we went to the main auditorium where we were welcomed with open arms. I'd heard about Turkish hospitality, but this was completely overboard. I think it helped that one of our professors, Linda Alpin, was friends with the president of Duzce University, Funda Serifoglu. They welcomed us and had each of us introduce ourselves to the small audience. It was quite a cermony including the exchange of gifts between the professors (and later gifts were given to all of us as well.)

From 2010 Turkey

Then we a short coffee break afterwards where we met two Turkish English instructors who I think enjoyed practicing their english with us. Next, we piled back into the bus for an adventurous drive down some twisty mountain roads to a 200 year old mosque out in the middle of nowhere. I was surprised our bus could even make it down some of these streets. While out in this rural mountain area, we once again saw the other side of Turkey...people living basic lives near poverty. But chatting with the folks at the mosque they actually seemed happier than most Americans I know, despite not having much.

From 2010 Turkey

We made a pit stop back in town to check out an old Roman theatre from about 800 BC. Our hosts served ice cream sandwiches which were a welcome relief from the mid-day heat. And we must have been quite a sight for the local kids in town as it seemed like a bunch of them came to check us out. We also went to a history museum that covered the local history dating back to some 2000 BC. America is such a young little baby by comparison.

From 2010 Turkey

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Once back in the bus, we hit the road headed to our final stop for the night -- Akcakoza on the Black Sea. A buffet dinner at the hotel and overlooking the water was waiting for us when we arrived. Akcakoza is a pretty small town, but at least it did have a city center part and a fair number of buildings. After dinner a few of us went to the hotel pool and ventured into the Black Sea early the next morning. It's hard to believe that Russia is just across the water. During breakfast the next day (again looking over the sea) we saw a couple of dolphins just off the coast. This hotel (Diapolis) is in a great location but the rooms are a bit dated even though they're huge (in fact there were two separate rooms in each room.)

From 2010 Turkey

But I appreciated getting to see some parts of Turkey outside of Istanbul especially because things are vastly different once outside of the big city.

Istanbul Day 8 - Back to work

2010-08-23T22:10:00.000-07:00

Today turned out to be pretty interesting with visits to Hurriyet Daily News (an English newspaper), Eczacibasi Group (another holding company), and Turk Telcom.

We started with the newspaper, where we all crammed into their tiny conference room. The building itself was nice and writers worked in an open floorplan of long desks with many computers in a row. This is similar to the setup I recall in the Google Dublin office and I assume it's typical of European companies. The discussion quickly turned to politics, even though I was more interested in the business of running a newspaper in Turkey. However, the editor offered an interesting framework for the news. He feels like are the five "stories" being told in one form or another in Turkey. These are:

1) The Armenian Genocide
2) Islam vs. Secularism
3) Honor killings
4) Status of women in Turkey
5) Freedom of expression in Turkey

Google any of those terms in order to find out more about them.

He also mentioned that he likes to hire writers to cover topics about their own culture. He doesn't want to hire a Canadian to come write about the Kurds, he wants a Kurd to write about the Kurdish conflict. I think this is a pretty good approach. He said they are more familiar with the issue and write with more passion, yet through the editorial process he can ensure they are presenting a balanced viewpoint. Seems like good management to me.

Censorship is an issue in the Turkish media, and especially self-censorship. One issue is that there are very few public records. For example, you can't just walk into the records office and say "I'd like a list of all the property owned by so-and-so."

From a business perspective, advertising isn't very mature in Turkey yet. The biggest advertisers are P&G and Turkcell. As a result, his paper lost $2 million last year. I guess newspapers are struggling worldwide for readership. He felt that his paper won't exist in a paper format 5 years from now and I'd guess that this has to do with Turkey's young population and their willingness to embrace new technology. (Most Turks are under 35.) This is also why Garanti Bank has been so successful launching new products and features.

Eczacibasi was another great visit and they welcomed us with open arms. Their building is amazingly beautiful, just like the design of their bathroom products (sinks, faucets, etc.) They had quite a spread of snacks and beverages in their 21st story conference room with panoramic views of Istanbul. In general, the company felt much more "modern" than the other holding company we visited, the Dogan Group. The main difference I noticed was that with Eczacibasi you could actually see the synergy between the companies they owned whereas Dogan felt like a random hodge-podge of companies.

They have a ton of joint ventures and this is a good way for foreign companies to enter the Turkish market. Many are 50/50, which is a bit unusual but the business development manager who gave the presentation said they work quite well. Many are with German and American companies, so they know these cultures and how to do business with them. Sinan (biz dev manager) indicated that Russia would be the next country they probably do big JVs with.

The question of innovation came up again and they take innovation very seriously. In fact, they have a direct report to the CEO who is a sort of innovation coordinator -- this seems like something I'd like to do! Similar to other organizations, they have a system where employees can submit ideas and be rewarded for those that result in products. They also have an annual "Innovation Day" where they update everyone in the company on innovations submitted by employees.

When I asked about the biggest cultural challenge working with Americans, Sinan said it was distance and a lack of knowledge. Basically, American's don't do their homework on Turkey and have a lot of misconceptions. Many don't do their market research. And they don't know the story of Turkey. On a side note, I think you have to be an ex-supermodel in order to work here if you're a woman (judging by the employees we met).

Our next stop was Turk Telcom. We met with one of their VPs who previously spent 16 years in the US, some of that time working at Yahoo!. They are the #1 DSL provider in Turkey and have 6M customers (abouot 92% market share). They also deliver landline telephone service.

Turk Telcom was government owned until about 2005 and the Turkish goverment is still a major shareholder. It's weird to think that they're a 168 year old company...you don't find many of those in America. Lately though, they've been shifting their strategy to actually deliver what customers want, which didn't matter in the past because they had a monopoly and customer had to accept whatever they delivered.

Day 7 - Prince's Islands

2010-08-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

Today we took the ferry out to the Prince's Islands and spent the day there.

From 2010 Turkey

Justin and Harsha were moving a bit slowly from their previous night's activities and neither were able to make it to the hotel breakfast. But I knew they'd regret missing our trip to the islands so after breakfast we coaxed them into consciousness and out the door. How these guys made it through the day is beyond me, but commendable.

The ferry is unbelievably cheap (only 3 TRL, about $2 USD). If they were this cheap in the bay area I think more people would use them and commute this way. The ride to the island took about an hour and a half and they serve all kinds of snacks and stuff on the boat, including typical Turkish tea. We chatted with some tourists from Belgium who gave us tips on which stop to get off at since we hadn't really planned ahead and researched anything.

From 2010 Turkey

The island has a bunch of nice mansions on it that serve as vacation homes. But many of them were in surprising states of disrepair and some appeared to have been abandoned for years. The architectural style was also unique...mostly colonial I think? It sort of felt like a wild west ghost town in some sections. Of course there was a bustling little downtown area with lots of shops and tons of places selling ice cream.

From 2010 Turkey

There are no cars on the island except for police vehicles (and maybe 1 or 2 delivery trucks) so it's pretty quiet. But there are a ton of horse-drawn carriages. We opted to walk around though and get some exercise, ultimately hiking to the highest point on the island and being rewarded with breathtaking views and a cold beer. Thanks go to Justin for encouraging the trek up there despite the heat.

From 2010 Turkey

We ended up taking one of the carriages back to the ferry so that we could make it in time and then just grabbed a quick bite to each at a local place back in Taksim.

Overall, totally an awesome day. It was a bit of an adventure since we didn't know what to expect and it turned out great. It made me realize that I don't take enough time to do this sort of stuff when I'm at home. Justin recommended doing a similar hike and ferry ride to Angel Island so I'm adding that to my "to do" list when I get back to San Francisco.

From 2010 Turkey

Istanbul Day 6 - Sight Seeing

2010-08-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

Today was our day for touristy stuff so we tried to hit as many of the major sites as possible. Here is a short recap of what we saw:

Topkapi Palace - This was an old palace that served as the home for the Ottoman Sultans. It was pretty big with a ton of different buildings (including the "circumcision room"...uhhhh?) There were a ton of jewels and other artifacts on display but the highlights had to be: an 86 carat diamond that was originally found in the city rubbish dump, the staff Moses used to part the sea, and the fingers of John the Baptist.

From 2010 Turkey

Hagia Sophia - The Haga Sophia is a church which was turned into a mosque. It's definitely a unique and beautiful building worth seeing. Massive is the best way to describe it.

From 2010 Turkey

Blue Mosque - The Blue Mosque was pretty interesting too. You are required to remove your shoes to enter. It's currently Ramadan too, so it may have been busier than usual. I was sort of disappointed with the ability to take a good photo though because they had these low-hanging chandeliers and a ton of wires obstructing the views of the ornate ceilings.

From 2010 Turkey

Cistern Basilica - This was probably my favorite thing that we saw today, mainly because I loved the underworld sort of feeling and the engineering that must have gone into creating such a place. It was essentially a big underground reservoir for the city of Istanbul and there were aqueducts to transport the water to and from the reservoir. Today there's only a few feet of water in it, but I can imagine that it must have gotten quite full in the past (there are big carp swimming around in the water today.) They do a great job of lighting it in an interesting way for the tourists although taking photos is tough because you need to use such a long exposure.

From 2010 Turkey

The Grand Bazar - The Grand Bazar was completely different from what I expected. I was thinking this would be very rustic with a dirt floor and little tent covered vendors. But it's really like a big maze of hallways and feels much more like a mall. There are some nice trendy sort of high end shops but most are little local establishments. It seems like you can get just about anything here and haggle prices with the local Turks. All the folks I was with bought some little souvenirs and some bought bigger ticket items like turkish rugs.

From 2010 Turkey

For dinner we went to Park Flora to have fish on the Bosphorus. This is a very nice restaurant with a great view and outdoor seating. They sell fish in kind of a strange way though. First, the prices on the menu are all per KG, so at first we were shocked to see how expensive everything is. But considering that an entree is only like 400 grams it was slightly more reasonable. But the other weird part was that you actually get up from your table with the waiter to go and pick your specific fish from their "fish market" in the restaurant. They have them all laid out on ice and you choose the one you want. We all ended up getting sea bass so they picked the biggest one for us to share. There was no choice on how it's prepared so we were in for a surprise. It turned out to be good though and even more importantly, it was a great experience.

One thing that I realized on this trip is a quote that Justin keeps saying "it's all about the experience" and he's right. Experiences might cost money, but that's beside the point. You want to have interesting, unique, enjoyable experiences when you're on a trip to a foreign country and money should be a secondary concern (in my opinion.) So even though it was an expensive dinner, it was definitely worth it and something I'll remember forever.

After dinner we walked over to Ortokoy for drinks down by the water. I think we were just at the Radisson hotel bar or something but it was awesome...right on the water with great views of the bridge and a trendy European crowd. One tip while you're in Turkey is to order the local vodka (Bimboa) if you are getting mixed drinks because it's significantly cheaper. Imported alcohol is heavily taxed.

Finishing up our drinks we tried to meet up with Preston and his friends to go to Angelic, a local club/bar. Unfortunately, only a few of us where able to get in (Justin and Harsha) but actually that worked out well since it allowed Caroline, Andrea, Neville and I to get an "early" night's sleep. I think Harsha and Justin had a pretty big night out and looked like they were in some pain the next morning.

Istanbul Day 5 - Bosphorus Dinner Cruise

2010-08-20T05:16:00.000-07:00

On Friday we visited Cisco, which was our first multi-national firm so I was pretty interested to see what it was like because I expect that working for Google in Turkey would be similar. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to visit the Google office but will make that a priority for my next trip.

The Cisco office felt and looked pretty much like any silicon valley office building, though they tend to build up rather than out here in Istanbul due to space constraints. If I recall, Cisco was on the 20th floor or so. I don't know if they were just dressed up for us, but the employees were very well dressed.

Cisco's business in Turkey largely involves sharing and selling their vision of the future. I suspect this is how they operate in the states too. Their description of this connected future reminds me of Star Trek, but it's probably not that far away! The Turkey office was opened in 1997 and they have a second office in Ankara to work with the Turkish government. Umit, the General Manager of Cisco Turkey, shared his insights and experience with our class. He previously worked in the states and has an MBA though I forget where it was from. One particularly interesting quote from him was "Turkey is a battleground of east vs. west." We've heard the east/west connection many times but this was the first time I'd heard it referred to as a battleground.

Some of the trends he discussed were:
- Young Turks are ambitious
- Companies now are focusing on operational excellence versus financial management
- There is relative stability in the Turkish government
- The power of the military in the government is declining

Other interesting take-aways from the day:
- Their HR manager (and others) referred to firing employees as "releasing" them.
- Negotiations with Turks can often include non-monetary items such as power, influence, honor, or respect.
- Light conversation is key prior to negotiations in order to build rapport.
- Turks are proud of Turkey and happy to answer questions when foreigners take an interest in their country.
- Relationships are key in business. Sometimes salespeople even go on vacations with their customers and their families.
- Even though day-to-day business can have hurdles, having that strong relationship allows you to call your customers and talk to them like they're your friends.
- I liked the way they used the CXO acronym rather than the familiar "C Suite" or "C level" description

After Cisco's main office visit, we went to the local university to see a Cisco Networking classroom. Overall, this wasn't too interesting but I did think it was neat that the school was 237 years old!

We had some time to kill after the Cisco visit so we went to the local mall which was really a super-high end place for the rich. Given the heat, it was nice to get into some air conditioning for awhile. Inside the mall we found many of the same brands and stores we're familiar with in the states. One key difference weas the fact that there are armed security guards and metal detectors at the entrances to the mall. There was also a mini Audi dealership inside the mall. They had an R8 and RS5 on display there and I was shocked to see the prices. Tax on imported cars is near 98%, making the RS5 cost about 140,000 euros which is like 320,000 Turkish Lira! (Normally this car would be about 66,000 euros if it were available in the US.) The saleswoman at the dealership didn't speak much English, only German and Turkish but admiring cars is universal I think.

From 2010 Turkey

Friday night was our big Bosphorus dinner cruise which so far has been a major highlight of the trip. The cruise started out interestingly enough with a distressed sailboat coming into the port. After much drama, our boat pulled him into the dock. In general, the Bosphorus is pretty crowded with boats and the captains don't seem to concerned when boats get pretty close to each other. The cruise was awesome, with great views of Istanbul at sunset. A few other folks joined us on the cruise including Tara and her husband and two SCU Global Fellows who were studying in Istanbul. Overall it was a nice night of conversation, wine, food, and amazing views. Rather than try to describe it all, I've included some pictures below.

From 2010 Turkey

After the cruise we grabbed a few beers at Tunel with the group. Tara's husband Cihan is a hilarious guy who kept us entertained all night with his stories. Finishing up at Tunel, we caught a cab back to the hotel and ended another memorable night.

Istanbul Day 4

2010-08-19T08:17:00.000-07:00

(This is going to be a short post because I don't have that many notes about this day.)

On Thursday we went to Dogan, a large holding company. They had nice buildings on their "campus" and armed (MP5) security out front. Basically, Dogan owned a ton of other companies, with lots of them in the media business (TV, newspapers, etc.) In fact, the Turkish government recently hit Dogan with a $5 billion (yes billion!) dollar tax penalty which seems to coincide with some bad press Dogan published about the government. Censorship? It sure seems like it.

We went to a fancy lunch with the Dogan folks, who were great hosts. After that we went to Airties, a consumer networking startup and then met with a Wall Street Journal reporter based in Istanbul.

A couple of interesting observations from the day:

- Gas is expensive in Turkey, about $2.50/liter which is around $10/gallon!
- Dogan is helping build the Trump Towers Istanbul
- Dogan had an IT guy in our meeting strictly to run the videos and powerpoint presentation
- Airties is one of the coolest companies in Turkey (along with Turkcell)
- Airties get customer feedback directly into development by putting engineers in the call center a couple days per month
- Airties will never outsource their support because they view this as vital feedback

Day 3 - Rural Turkey

2010-08-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday we ventured outside of Istanbul into a more rural area to visit two "startups" and a local Governor. We'd been hearing from lots of people that there are really "two Turkeys": the modern, European Turkey and the simple, more 3rd world-ish Turkey. This gave us a chance to see the difference first hand.

Our first stop was Global Nutritech, an animal feed supplement company. The founder had gotten his PhD and worked in the US for a competitor and then decided to return to Turkey as his parents got older. He started this company with $40,000 of his own money (many Turks avoid taking bank loans) and is on track to hit $1 million in sales this year!

One thing we noticed with both of the companies today is that they were going after mid-sized customers rather and the big guys. I am not sure if this is indicative of all Turkish businesses, but I got the sense that some of them aren't ambitious enough. They also don't seem to see the value in taking loans or other financing in order to expand their businesses.

Next we met with the Governor of Kandira, who's name was Hamza. The system in Turkey is such that there is a governor for a region, who is appointed by the central government and also a mayor for the region/city who is elected. This seems like a good setup because the governor can make the difficult decisions without worrying about re-election. Maybe we should adopt something similar in the US? Our current system doesn't seem to work too well.

Following the visit with the Governor was a trip to ICM, which builds napkin folding and toilet paper rolling machines for the paper industry. It was hotter than hell in their factory, but after a tour they took us into the engineering office which was air conditioned. I thought it was cool that they provide a shuttle service and lunch for all their employees, just like Google! Apparently this is common in the rural areas and people will take or decline jobs based on things like the shuttle availability.

After that we went out to Koceili to meet with their chamber of commerce. The feedback we got form business is that the chambers are sort of worthless, even though it's required that you become a member. This wasn't too exciting to be honest, but we did get some free time downtown and were able to grab a beer. At the bar, the bartender went around with some lemon scented alcohol for everyone's hands...sort of like an old school version of Purell.

We also happened to see the Prime Ministers helicopter landing because he was giving a speech in the area. Too bad we didn't get to go to that though (not that we would have understood a word, but it was obviously a pretty big deal.)

That night we had dinner on the Sea of Marmara and I saw with the ICM industrial engineer and his American wife Rose. She was really into technology so being surrounded by people who worked at Google, Paypal, and Apple sparked some great conversation.

Good food, good drinks, and good fun! It was a long and sleepy ride back to the hotel in Istanbul (about 2 hours).

Istanbul Day 2 - Sabanci University

2010-08-17T07:27:00.000-07:00

(I am posting these posts a bit late, so these aren't real time but I'll try to include a post for everyday of the trip.)

Sabanci University

Today was our first chance to use public transportation in Istanbul, which turned out to be very easy. The subway was surprisingly clean, much cleaner than BART at home. The first "leg" was sort of just a little subway that went up and down an underground incline (called a Funicular -- Istanbul is actually pretty hilly, similar to San Francisco) and ran on a cable. From an engineering perspective, it was pretty cool and you could see a big pulley wheel that was part of the system. The subways are air conditioned too, which is a huge plus. As a result though, the doors only open when you press a button rather than stay open at a stop and let all the cool air escape.

We spent the day at Sabanci University's downtown campus. Their downtown campus building is inside of an old bank. After WWI the Sabanci family began buying as much property in Istanbul as possible. This turned out to be a good strategy.

We learned a lot about the Turkish cultural norms, which is a topic I really like. The Turkish culture is typically diffuse, where work and personal life are blended together. But it's in more moderation than in the US where the "mixing" of work and life often results in over-work and loads of stress. Turks have a much more European approach to work-life balance. But as the trip progressed I learned that this isn't so much of a balance, where the two things are separate, but more like the right formula of work and life mixed together.

Turks also have a culture of asking for advice or word-of-mouth recommendations. This is based on their strong relationships both in business and otherwise. But ironically, Turkey is a fairly low trust society among those lacking these relationships. Job titles also go a long way in determining your status in Turkey. In some ways, I feel like we got a pretty biased view of this though because our presenters were people like the Dean, which really represents the upper end of Turkish society.

We walked to lunch on the second floor of a restaurant with the crew from Sabanci. The food was a bit different today, but excellent as usual. Garlic eggplant puree was a big hit even though I hate eggplant.

On the way home, we took the metro again and somehow a few of us got separated from the rest of the group. We got a little lost, but at least got off at the right stop and found our way back to the hotel. Neville and I hit the pool to cool off for a bit and then we went out to a low key dinner.

While walking to dinner, we had to stop and ask a guy which way the restaurant was and I was shocked at his helpfulness. First of all, it was just past sunset and he and his friends had broken their fast (for Ramadan) just a few minutes ago. In fact, they had pulled a folding card table out of their van and were eating on the side of the street. He even went as far as to offer us some of his food. Then he proceeded to walk nearly two blocks with us to show us where he thought the restaurant was. I have to say, that just wouldn't happen in America. The Turks are extremely friendly and helpful.

Istanbul Day 1

2010-08-16T12:43:00.000-07:00

(I'll try to make these posts shorter going forward because 1) I don't have a lot of time and 2) most people don't want to read all these details. To be honest, I can't even commit to posting regularly on this trip. I am posting this now even though it's 5 days old.)

Our first "real" day in Turkey and our first meetings with businesses. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we headed off by bus to the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce. Juliana and I were the "captains" for the day, which meant we had to keep the group organized, help get them from place to place, and make sure nobody got lost. We almost succeeded with that task! (See below re: dinner)

The Chamber of Commerce is in a beautiful building right on the Bosphorus River. There were metal detectors at the entrance (as we'd later discover, this is pretty common) and almost immediately they took us up the elevator to the rooftop patio which has amazing views of both the Bosphorus and a nearby mosque. The chamber was founded in 1882 and has about 350,000 members. Our presenter pretty much outlined the economic state of Turkey. I was surprised to learn that Turkey is the 6th largest economy in the EU and about 16th worldwide (very similar in size to Australia.) Inflation used to be a massive problem in Turkey, hovering around 70% (and interest rates were similarly high, paying about 75%!) But they've gotten this under control now with a conservative monetary policy and inflation is now around 8%. One problem for Turkey, like the US, is that they import much more than they export. Another big issue for Turkey is the high unemployment rate.

The Chamber of Commerce was a great host, providing tea and cookies after our lecture. This also gave us a chance to mingle with our presenter. Although some of the team was more interested in mingling with the two Turkish girls who helped host the event.

We piled back into the bus (which luckily was air conditioned) and went just a short drive over to the Chamber of Shipping. This department is responsible for anything shipped by sea. (Air and ground freight are not included.) As you'd expect, their building is located directly on the water. The chamber of shipping wasn't established until recently in 1982, which I thought was weird considering that shipping by sea is one of the oldest forms of transportation. Any company in Turkey that deals with shipping must be a member of this chamber. The Turkish merchant shipping fleet is about the 15th largest in the world, which explains why we're seeing so many boats. About 85% of the imports and exports to Turkey are done by boat.

Turkey also has a big shipbuilding industry and the Maltese Falcon, the largest and most technologically advanced sailboat in the world, was built here! Note: it's currently for sale if you have $70 million laying around burning a hole in your pocket.

The biggest challenges to the Turkish shipping industry are: reduced freight rates, shipbuilding competition with China, China stopping shipping coal, and Russia stopping shipping grain. About 30% of Turkey's shipping goes through the Suez Canal.

Since the Bosphorus is pretty narrow, boats can travel through the strait in one direction during the day and the other direction during the night. This reduces accidents.

After the Chamber of Shipping we went to Garanti bank for lunch and afternoon lectures. They have an archeticturally interesting building in Istanbul and out front when we arrived was a guard holding a standard MP5 sub-machine gun. This actually was a pretty common sight because even later that night we saw the police in Taksim Square carrying similar weapons, even though the place seems completely safe. I think this just seems foreign to Americans because we aren't used to seeing heavily armed police like the rest of the world uses.

Garanti bank reminded me a lot of where I work (Google) except that being a bank, people were dressed nicely in suits. They have a fairly young workforce and their own cafeteria where we ate lunch. We ate then headed to a large auditorium to learn about their business. We covered a lot of material so I won't repeat it all here, but the most interesting thing to me was their market segmentation efforts. The do almost textbook segmentation of their customers based primarily on customer needs (Dr. Montermosso would be happy with this.) They segment by needs but correlate these to observable characteristics like revenue or loan amounts. The segmentation drives a lot of their product innovation. I also asked them about how they've built a culture of innovation, which is something we discuss a lot at Google. One way they do this (in addition to segmentation) is to collect product ideas from employees as part of their "You Recommend" program. Employees receive an incentive or bonus if their idea is implemented.

That night we went back to the hotel and had a little downtime before a group dinner at Haci Baba. This is where I screwed up as day captain and accidently left someone back at the hotel (who was sleeping in her room.) We noticed she was missing almost immediately after leaving, so we went back and left a note for her. Food at dinner was good and rather than use a menu they brought out a whole bunch of sample dishes and asked us which we wanted.

Despite being pretty tired, we went out for some beers after dinner. Nothing fancy and I headed back to the hotel early with Harsha. The second day is usually when the jet-lag hits the worst and we definitely felt it during the lectures at Garanti bank. A few others stayed out much later, but I was happy to get a good night's sleep.

MBA trip to Istanbul

2010-08-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

(Wow, it's been awhile since I posted to this blog...I guess I've just been too busy. But I wanted to capture some memories from my trip to Istanbul and the blog is a good way to do that.. So if nobody reads this...no problem.)

We arrived in Istanbul! It was a pretty typical flight to Europe -- direct from SFO to Frankfurt and then a connection from there to Istanbul (which is about a 3 hour flight from Frankfurt.) I think the total flying time was about 13 hours, not including the short layover.

We had planned to take a shuttle bus from the airport to the hotel, but one of the people we were meeting up with got stuck in London. As a result, there were only four of us which meant we could fit into a taxi, sort of. We crammed our luggage in the trunk and on our laps and headed to the hotel. Almost immediately we were on a road along the Bosphorus River. I was surprised at how many large shipping boat where out there, either anchored or moving. This is a major shipping channel.

Since we arrived around 5pm, it was hot but not insanely hot. The Point Hotel is pretty nice. It's modern and European feeling. That night we saw these 4 supermodels having dinner at the hotel and they interrupted our 1st class meeting, twice. It was hilarious and a welcome interruption for a tired bunch of MBA students.

After dinner, Preston (who had already been in Istanbul for a few days staying with a friend here) took us to a restaurant up near Taksim square. We had a group of about 12 so it was hard to seat us. We had no idea what we were ordering, but it turned out to be good! We had a few beers (the local beer is Efes) and hit the sack.

burlingame downtown specific area plan and what i did

2009-12-31T20:59:00.000-08:00

Coming to the end of 2009, it's hard to believe that I first began working with the Burlingame Citizen's Advisory Committee over 2 years ago. We recently held an event for the community to share our work now that it's nearly complete.

The CAC is a group of ~10 appointed (selected?) Burlingame citizens interested in the future development of the Burlingame Avenue area. Although I've been interested in urban planning and development, I first started going to some community workshops when I moved to Burlingame, which is how I got involved with the CAC.

During the past 2 years, we worked with the Community Development Director, the hired consultants, and the Planning Commissioners to come up with what's known as a specific area plan for the Burlingame Avenue area. This is a document outlining things such as zoning, building height limitations, building uses, parking, even details about the sidewalks and streetscapes. The goal is to create a plan that will allow Burlingame to retain it's charm and be prepared for the future. (Plans like these are often only updated every 50-75 years, so thinking "big picture" and long-term are essential.)

In many ways, being on the CAC was similar to my job at Google. Except, instead of advising product managers on what features advertisers want (or don't want) I was helping to advise the city planners on what citizens want (or don't want) in regards to their town.

You can check out a well polished draft of our plan on the Burlingame.org site.

I also created this Google Earth / Google Sketchup fly-through animation for our final presentation to the community. I highlighted a few new ideas such as a better connection to Washington Park (arches & tress) since many visitors don't know it's there, a possible new location for our farmer's market, and an idea for a downtown open-space.

i've jumped on the twitter bandwagon

2009-11-15T09:21:00.000-08:00

I thought that I'd have more time to blog during my paternity leave, but I've actually had less. As a result, I've joined twitter, which is micro-blogging in the sense that it limits all posts to 140 characters. So I can't type too much and you don't have to read too much. It's not that people are lazy (including myself -- in fact writing so concisely is actually hard work) but people just don't have a lot of time these days.

I still plan to post to this blog and will try to do so more regularly. But for those quick, short updates I'll use twitter to share my thoughts. I haven't decided if I'll post more mundane things to it like I do on my Facebook status. I added a twitter gadget to the right-hand side of the blog so you'll always be able to see my latest tweets there.

Alternatively, you can follow me on twitter. And if we aren't already friends on Facebook, you should add me!

proof that californians can't drive in the rain

2009-10-23T11:11:00.000-07:00

Last week we had our first major rain of the year. Below is a Google map of the San Francisco Bay Area with the traffic warnings enabled. As you can see, this proves that Californians can't drive in the rain.

Thanks to my brother Drew for sending this.

Click to see the bigger version.

back to school

2009-10-04T22:23:00.000-07:00

Well, all the fun I mentioned previously had to eventually come to an end. I started school two weeks ago and probably never dreaded anything so much in my life.

My advice to anyone going to school while working full time -- do not take time off (from school.) If you're partway through your program (like I was) and decide to take a quarter off of school for good reason (such as having a baby) then be warned. Returning after that long break will be difficult.

You will get addicted to the freedom associated with not having a commitment like school. Over the summer, I relished my time after work. It felt so nice to simply come home from work and be able to spend time with Danielle and Luca. I had time to relax. I had time to make dinner. I had time to watch movies. I had time to do lots of stuff. It felt great!

But all of that is gone now. Although I'm only in class two nights a week, it still takes it's toll on my ability to relax. Because even on non-school nights, if I come home and decide to watch a movie, go out for dinner, play with Luca, or play Wii, in the back of my mind there is still this voice making me feel guilty because I'm not doing my homework or studying. Being in school ruins my ability to ever completely, totally relax.

So this is why I was dreading going back to my MBA program. And in fact, I seriously considered dropping out. But since I'm already done with 3 quarters, and the long term upside of an MBA is pretty high, I decided I might as well suck it up for another two years.

Perhaps during that time I'll find a way to quash that little voice making me feel guilty when I'm having fun.

boating with keith and bill

2009-09-14T21:00:00.000-07:00

Whoa, I've neglected this blog for nearly a month. Sorry about that. Honestly, I was having too much fun! There were four solid weekends of jam-packed fun activities.

1st weekend - Pebble Beach Car Show
2nd weekend - Keith arrived from New Zealand & we went to Monterey (golfing, etc)
3rd weekend - Hanging out with Keith in SF & Burlingame (boating, fishing, sight seeing, and visiting Ian & Linda)
4th weekend - Celebrating our anniversary and Danielle's birthday

From 2009 Boating with Bill

Having my brother-in-law in town from New Zealand was surely the highlight. We had such an awesome time. I keep thinking that even though I've only met Keith twice, I feel like I've known him my whole life. We enjoy doing lots of the same things and generally just get along really well. We have fun whether we're out golfing or just sitting back having a beer at home.

While he was in town, we did a bunch of stuff including spending a day in San Francisco. However, the highlight had to be going fishing with my friend Bill on his boat. Sadly, we didn't catch many fish...in fact Keith (who is an avid fisherman in New Zealand) was the only one to catch anything. First, he caught a little crab who had grabbed onto his line. Then, he caught a shark! I'm not kidding, it was probably 2-3 feet long. I tried to get the camera but just as Keith was pulling him into the boat, he wiggled and unhooked himself to get free. This was a good thing though since we'd planned to release him anyway but none of us wanted to get the hook out of his mouth...so he saved us the trouble.

Most of the day fishing involved drinking beer and taking pictures. The weather was amazing; it must have been close to 90 degrees that weekend in San Francisco, which is unheard of. We were comfortable even without shirts on the boat, although the water did get somewhat rough when we attempted to head out to Alcatraz. (Ultimately, we turned back to the safety of Treasure Island.) We were glad to have Bill as our captain since he's an accomplished sailor.

From 2009 Boating with Bill

One of the highlights for me was getting to see the new Bay Bridge construction up-close. We went under it a couple times and snapped some great pictures of this engineering marvel. I think it's pretty cool that I'm getting to see this built during my lifetime, considering that it'll be around for a long time. It's sort of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see such a major construction project completed. And it reminds me of those old photos of the Golden Gate Bridge under construction, and how odd the bay looked without a bridge there. Although, the construction of the Golden Gate may have been more amazing to watch, considering the technology of the time.

All in all, a great 4 weekends in a row!

Oh and by the way, I realized I like boats almost as much as I like cars but I don't think I'm ready to deal with how much maintenance would be involved in owning one.

Click here for the full gallery from the boating trip.

my weekend at the pebble beach concours d'elegance

2009-08-19T21:57:00.000-07:00

From 2009 Pebble Beach Concours

For an automobile enthusiast like myself, last weekend was like living in a fantasy world. I took Friday off work to head down to Monterey for the annual Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. I had never been to it before but had always wanted to. So of course I had pretty high expectations and the entire weekend over-delivered.
Rather than give a full play-by-play, I'll recap a few highlights from each day.

Friday

Met up with my friend Bill and attended the RM auction preview and saw countless amazing cars including a couple of Millers.
Snuck into the auction at Quail Lodge, again saw amazing vehicles...too many to list.
Watched a 1937 Bugatti get bid up to $5.1 million and still not meet it's reserve price.
Got to touch an Auto Union formula car valued at over $8 million.
Saw a McLaren Mercedes SLR for the first time just driving down the street.
Found out I don't mind being stuck in traffic when every 3rd car is a Ferrari or Porsche.
Learned how to tell if a classic Bugatti is a replica.
Nearly collided with Jay Leno.
Talked to some guy about his Lotus Elise, sat in it, and I'm now thinking about buying one.
Went back to the RM auction that evening and had dinner at Britannia Arms. (Amazed by how much money is sitting the room at these auctions!)

Saturday
Saturday was our day at the race track (Laguna Seca).

Bill secured a Porsche 356 Speedster for us to drive all weekend.
Saw $100,000+ cars (owned by spectators) parked in the dirt parking lot.
Watched VIPs bypass traffic and come to the track by helicopter.
Felt happy to see people actually racing these vintage cars.
Learned lots about old cars from Bill.
Realized that vintage racing is cool and these guys actually drive pretty hard!
Watched a guy crash a classic Ferrari Testa Rossa worth probably $10million.
Fell in love with some vintage Porsches
Attended the IDEO party at Montrio and talked cars with some cool folks (and great designers) thanks to an invite I got on Facebook.
Went back to the RM auction again!

Sunday
On Sunday we spent the entire day at the Pebble Beach Concours.

Saw beautiful corporate displays from Tesla, Spyker, and Ferrari.
Compared the new Ferrari California to the original (same type of car used in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off.)
Talked to the Lotus factory rep about the new Evora and the Elise.
Checked out the concept car display on the Pebble Beach putting green.
Saw my first Bugatti Veyron in person (actually I saw 4 of them.)
Found an old Bugatti kid's pedal car for Luca (if it weren't $15,000.)
Realized that Pebble Beach is a nice, scenic place for a car show.
Admired the architecture (and location) of this guy's house.
Saw more vintage Ferraris than I could have imagined!
Saw more vintage Bentleys than I could have imagined!
Saw more vintage Bugattis than I could have imagined!
Continued to learn a lot about the history of these cars from Bill (who is old enough to be very familiar with them.)
Felt like a part of "high society" for the day (people really get decked out for this show, women with hats and fur and gloves and all that.)
Saw some celebrities: Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Edward Hermann, and two dudes that looked like German rock stars (or maybe porn stars.)
Watched Jerry Seinfeld drive one of his racing Porsches and saw the another one in the parking lot (parked illegally of course!)
Decided if I get a vintage car, I need to dress in vintage style like these guys.
Was "wowed" by the attention to detail and interesting engineering on many of these old cars (like how the wheel weights get attached to wire wheels or the finish of the dashboard and gauges.)

Click here for my full photo gallery from the weekend.

From 2009 Pebble Beach Concours

follow up on work-life balance

2009-08-09T22:46:00.001-07:00

I happened to read this on Wired.com today and thought it was worth posting a link as a follow up to my comments about work-life balance. From the article:

"If you rabidly focus on work, in the long run, you'll be unhappy. Ran Kivetz, a professor of business at Columbia University, recently conducted a series of experiments that identified a paradox in our behavior: Doing the "right" thing—putting our responsibilities ahead of momentary pleasures—often leaves us unhappy down the road. When we skip a vacation to work overtime or pass up that awesome vintage Porsche for a used minivan—sure, we pat ourselves on the back for a week or two. But as the years go by, we invariably regret our monkishness and wish we'd enjoyed ourselves more."

Check out the full list of New Rules of How to Behave for Highly Evolved Humans

having a good work-life balance has nothing to do with your job

2009-08-05T22:40:00.000-07:00

The other day I was having lunch with someone who complained about not having a good work-life balance because of their demanding job. But I didn't quite know how to tell the person that the problem isn't their job, the problem is them.

Having a good work-life balance is something entirely within your control. Either achieving this balance is important to you or it isn't. And for those people who make it a priority, well guess what...they tend to have a good work-life balance. They're happier and less stressed. And this is all because they took control.

I think a lot of people put in long hours for a couple of reasons:

They have too much work. This can be solved by learning how to tactfully say "No" when new projects come along.
They can't prioritize the work they have. Learning how to figure out what's important is a valuable skill. I like the 3 MIT method.
They want to "get caught up" on their work. Some people even take this a step further and try to "get ahead". But guess what, there is always more work waiting for you. Even if you finish everything on your To Do list, someone is bound to give you more. So just remember, work will still be waiting for you the next morning whether you go home at 5pm or 10pm.
They have a uniquely demanding job. I'm sure there are some jobs that do simply require unbelievably long hours. But these are usually also jobs with specific deadlines. A lawyer preparing for a big case certainly will need to do everything possible to prepare before their first day in court.
They want to look like a hard worker. Be warned though, long hours don't indicate hard work. Sure, some managers will think "Wow, look at Dave, he's really busting his butt lately on this project. Great job!" but other managers might thing "Wow, I can't believe Dave is having to spend so long on this project. Doesn't he know how what he's doing or how to manage his time?"
They want to be successful. More frequently managers are judging people based on their performance and results rather than the effort they put in. Long hours won't pay off if you still produce mediocre results. Now, if you can produce stellar results by working long hours then that's a different story. But try to produce stellar results working "normal" hours if you can.
People expect you to reply to emails within 5 hours. Whatever the number is maybe your company has a culture of speed where people think that you have to reply to emails quickly. Well it's in your control to change that expectation. Sure, if you have always responded to emails in the evening in the past then people will expect you to continue doing that. Setting expectations is key. If people know you don't check emails in the evening, they won't expect a reply until the next day. And if something is really important, someone will call you.

Ok, now your convinced and having a healthy work-life balance is suddenly a priority for you. So how do you go about getting it? Here are a handful of suggestions that I've seen work:

Set boundaries. Don't let people schedule you for meetings outside of the hours from 9-5pm. If someone schedules a 7am or 7pm meeting, politely decline.
Have a good system such as GTD. If you have everything you need to do recorded in a trusted system then it's easier to unplug at the end of the day and not stress-out thinking about all the things you need to do. You know that when you get back to work and look at your To Do list that it's complete and you know exactly what you need to work on.
Avoid working at home. I think a lot of people fall into the trap of doing work at home. With laptops, broadband, VPNs, and Blackberries, it's too easy to "just check a couple emails" while you're at home. I say resist the temptation. When you get home, don't work. If you have too much work to do, then stay at the office and do it. Go home after it's done. Once you start working at home in the evenings or on the weekends, it's a difficult habit to break.
Have commitments outside of work. Sign up for a class, join a sports team, make dinner plans, just do something that meets on a regular schedule that you'll feel bad about missing. By having a commitment outside of work, you're more likely to hold yourself accountable for getting out of the office at a reasonable time. Another benefit of this is that you will find that you're more productive during the hours that you're at work. And by filling your time outside of work with other activities you'll have less down-time to "just check email for a minute."
Get into a routine. You've probably noticed certain people who leave the office at the same time everyday. Having a set schedule can be a good way to get your work-life balance under control. This ties in to the point above about having somewhere you need to go, but even if you don't then you should try to leave at around the same time everyday. I'm not suggesting you sit around and watch the clock but knowing that you plan to leave at 6:00 will force you to make the best use of your time up until then. Usually we all have too much to do in a given day but shortening the amount of time we give ourselves to do it forces us to be more efficient.

I'm sure there are many more good tips people use for maintaining work-life balance. If you have a suggestion, leave it in the comments.

segmentation of people by work habits

2009-07-24T22:24:00.000-07:00

I previously wrote about how marketing is really the study of stereotypes and I wanted to explore that idea a little further. Another thing I learned in my marketing class was about market segmentation and that can be applied to just about anything. Specifically, I was thinking about the dynamics of working in a group. Whether it be a group project for school or at work, choosing group members who are in the same segment as you will reduce tension and improve your working relationships.

From what I've observed, there are four segments of students/workers.

The Idiot Slacker - This type of person is both lazy and dumb. They don't try very hard but it's almost irrelevant because they simply don't have the mental capacity to perform at the level required. They are by far the worst type of people to have in your group because they provide no value.

The "A for Effort" Person - This person isn't too bright but they sure do work hard. They are willing to dedicate time and effort to a project but their intellectual contributions to the group are low. These people aren't bad to have in your group because you can help get them up to speed and they're willing to learn.

The Brainiac Slacker - This person is smart, but they are also somewhat lazy. (I tend worry that I'm in this group.) These people are typically characterized by their desire to be very efficient in their work and only put in the minimum effort to get a good result. The always look for the easiest solutions. Luckily, since they're smart they can use this to their advantage and they usually don't need to put in too much effort. These folks don't have a lot of patience for those who slow down the group if they don't understand or can't do things as quickly.

The Overachievers - These people are both smart and hard working. They make up the majority of the people in MBA programs or at top employers. Since they're bright, they understand complex topics quickly and are willing to go the extra mile to produce stellar work even if that means working 80 hour weeks or meeting with a school project group 7 days a week. Their standards are exceptionally high and they push others in the group to meet those same high standards.

Problems arise when you have different segments working together. For example, the brainiac slackers don't like to work with the idiots or the "A for efforts" because they don't have the patience for them. But they also don't like to work with the overachievers because they don't want to put in all the extra work. The overachievers are frustrated by the both the brainiac and idiot slackers because they feel like they aren't trying very hard. But they are typically aligned with the "A for efforts" because both types are willing to put in a lot of time on the project. The "A for efforts" typically get frustrated because they're trying so hard but are often being disregarded by the smarter people in the group. And nobody really likes working with the idiot slackers but they don't really care because they're happy to coast by on everyone else's work.

That's my simplistic view of the different types of people you might encounter when working on a group project. My recommendation is to try to find people similar to yourself.

my neighbor - the library

2009-07-19T22:54:00.000-07:00

I live very close to the local library. In fact, I'm right across the street. But I've never really paid much attention to this. With all the information available on the internet it seems weird to walk into a library for a physical book. But back when I was studying for a statistics waiver exam, I did just that. The fact that I taught myself statistics well enough to pass the exam was a lesson in the power of the information held in our libraries.

And if I could teach myself statistics from a book I found at the library, what else could I learn?

Then I started thinking about just how much information is contained in that building across the street. I don't think I can quantify it. The information is so convenient. It's almost as convenient as the internet (due to my close proximity) and there is something very rewarding about finding information in a physical book. Information written in books has a sort of credibility that's hard to replicate on the internet. And the best part is that this information is free! There are no subscriptions, dues, or internet service provider monthly fees. Anyone can walk into a library and learn (provided they know how to read) about any subject they want.

I should use the library more often when I want to learn about a new subject.

passive versus active computer usage

2009-07-09T23:32:00.000-07:00

I typically classify my computer usage into two categories. Either it's "active" or "passive." One isn't necessarily better than the other but I find active computer use more rewarding. But unfortunately I've been doing a lot more passive use lately.

Passive computer use - There are a lot of activities that fall into this category and I'd argue that it's how the majority of people who use computers outside of work actually use them. (I'm excluding work here because presumably people do something useful when they use a computer at work!) Some examples of passive computer use are: watching videos, reading blogs, reading news, researching a topic you're interested in, chatting with your friends, looking at photos, playing video games, listening to music, checking your friend's facebook status, well..you get the idea. For the most part, it's a one way flow of information from the computer (or internet) to you. In many ways, it's similar to sitting down in front of the TV, browsing a magazine, or reading a book. For most people, it's an enjoyable activity. When people talk about "surfing the web" I usually think of this type of passive computer use. As I mentioned, I've been doing a lot of this lately which is why my blog hasn't been updated much.

There isn't anything wrong with passive computer use just like there isn't anything wrong with watching TV or reading books/magazines. It's a great way to learn new skills or get exposed to new ideas. I often feel like a sponge when I'm in this mode, soaking up information as quickly as possible.

Active computer use - The key characteristic of active computer use is the creation of something. No longer is the information travelling in only one direction (from the internet/book/tv to your brain). With active computer use you are transmitting information out of your head and to others. Some examples are: writing a blog post, uploading pictures to Flickr, creating a website, contributing your expertise to a wikipedia article, or even leaving a comment on a forum, blog, or news article. But they don't have to be strictly related to the internet (although that is probably the most common way of sharing information.) It could be using your computer to write a report, design a building, or make a music playlist. I categorize all of the activities that involve "doing" or "creating" into this active computer use category. There is something you can point to at the end and say "I made that" no matter how minor.

For some reason, I tend to get enjoyment from active computer use. (Well, I enjoy both but creating something is more rewarding.) The trouble is that it's more time consuming. It takes time and thought to sit down and write a blog post, edit and share photography, or upload a homemade video. But the satisfaction comes from interacting with others and seeing their reaction to your work. Even if it's as simple as seeing that your YouTube video had 1,000 views. I also think the active use helps you grow. Instead of just taking in information, you are combining and mixing all of your knowledge and experience to produce something unique. This forces you to think for yourself rather than simply consume to what's already out there.

welcome little luca!

2009-06-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

I have a good excuse for neglecting this blog the past week or so. My son, Luca Vincent Chiaro, was born on 6/12/2009! Mom and baby are doing great and we're slowly getting adjusted to having another person around.

I don't intend to blog too much about Luca on here since my wife has a "baby blog" setup already, which we can use as an outlet for cute photos, funny stories, and that sort of stuff. But I will keep blogging about whatever else and I'm sure there will be some posts in the future reflecting on parenthood.

The baby blog can be found at littlemiracleoflife.blogspot.com. It's a private blog so please email me or leave a note in the comments if you'd like access. All friends and family are welcome!

filling my time

2009-05-31T23:16:00.000-07:00

You may have read about our weekend on Danielle's blog. We prioritized "having fun" above things like school studying, baby preparations, and all the other stuff we need to do. And you know what? It felt great! We went to a BBQ and drinks in SF on Friday night, hung out around Burlingame and went to a wedding on Saturday...and Sunday, ok well Sunday we did spend the majority of the day studying but I still got in a decent jog and relaxation in the morning.

For awhile now, I've had on my "To Blog" list that I should write about my increase in blog posts during the time that I transitioned jobs from Ducati to Google. (Yes, that means this has been something I've been meaning to write about for 3 years and haven't yet!) It seems sort of irrelevant now because my blogging has become so erratic. But there was a period of time in 2007 when I was blogging almost three times a week. (I wrote 140 blog posts in 2007 after leaving Ducati.)

What I'd planned to write about was how changing jobs had increased the amount of free time I had. I was no longer spending big chunks of my time at airports and traveling for work. This meant I had more time and apparently I used that time to blog. But it seems that I always find new ways to fill my time. As my wife can attest, I rarely get bored. I've always got something to keep myself busy. Sometimes you hear retired people say that they don't know what to do with their time but I simply can't relate to that idea.

From Ducati 748

Looking back, I think a big shift towards having more free time was when I gave up my motorcycling hobby. Even though it was painful to call it quits and sell my bike, I'd never realized how much time it consumed. I didn't think twice about taking off at 9am to ride with my buddies up in the Santa Cruz mountains. I'd get home and the entire day would be gone. Not to mention the time spent maintaining my bike. It was fun, and I miss it, but how did I ever have the time? When I quit riding, I probably felt "time rich" for awhile...but new activities and hobbies eventually crept in and now I feel crunched for time again.

But what I realized is that I used to prioritize motorcycle rides very highly and made the conscious decision to spend my time doing that. And this made me happy. I was doing something fun that I wanted to do, not sometime I had to do. I need to make sure I continue to prioritize fun things in the future.

(Although I've been too busy for much in the way of cars and motorsports lately...I've recently been rekindling that interest in new ways. I don't plan to go back to riding bikes but I am looking to make cars and motorsports a part of my life again. I think I've also realized that it's OK to be a an avid motorcycle racing fan even if you don't ride -- like my old pal Julian Thomas who handled all the PR for Ducati Corse.)

pictures from the nine inch nails concert friday

2009-05-24T23:04:00.000-07:00

Drew, Jocelyn and I went to the NIN/JA (Nine Inch Nails & Janes Addiction) concert on Friday at Shoreline Amphitheatre. We even met up with Miles and Kim, who were lucky enough to score the backstage VIP treatment. Sadly, due to our own hesitation, Drew and I missed out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Lesson learned: Don't hesitate. If your gut is telling you to do something, do it. Don't let your brain intervene. It wasn't until after finally deciding to buy it that we found out it's sold out. This was the most emotionally wrenching experience. I went from a state of absolutely euphoria to utter disappointment and instantly vowed not to hesitate on decisions like this ever again. I still donated a few bucks to the charity, but it wasn't as much as I had planned.

The concert was still awesome and we had a great time. It was bittersweet since this is likely the last tour that Nine Inch Nails will ever do. Trent has been very clear that after 20 years of making music (Pretty Hate Machine came out in 1989), he plans to retire. From some of his recent interviews, it sounds like he just wants to have a normal life for once. But I wonder if the current turmoil in the music industry influenced his decision? Either way, he's picking a good time to call it quits if he wants to end on a high note. NIN has been doing great recently with lots of tours, excellent albums, a strong online community, and adventurous marketing.

Here are some pictures from the show:
My 2009 NIN/JA Tour pictures
Drew's 2009 NIN/JA Tour pictures

BTW - It's awesome that NIN is one of the few bands that allows cameras, including DSLRs with 300mm zooms at their shows. And kudos to a guy from Mercer, PA making it big in the music industry. (Some sources indicate he was born in New Castle, PA -- where my Dad is from.)

more on time, money, and ownership

2009-05-19T22:49:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling a little better since my blog post last night. Maybe it's because I realized that I can spend my time how I choose. If I don't want to spend my evening doing homework for school, I don't have to. Now I just have to stop stressing about the consequences.

I thought about time as a resource a lot today. Time is valuable like money or gold or oil but it has some unique characteristics that prevent you from treating it like a currency.

Time can't be stored. You can't put it in a bank to use later. Sure you can "save time" by doing something quickly and immediately create a little extra time but you still can't store it for later use.

Time is limited. Again, unlike money which you can accumulate, you only get a limited amount of time. 24 hours per day. And everyone gets this exact same amount. Nobody is rich or poor in terms of time.

You can buy time. You can pay someone to do things that would cost you time to do them yourself. Some examples are cooking, cleaning, or yard work. But even buying time, you can't buy more than 24 hours in a day.

You own your time. Time is like an allowance, you get 24 hours at the beginning of every day. You can choose to spend it how you wish but whatever you don't spend at the end of the day, you lose. This is the part that I feel like I've been bad about lately. I've haven't been protecting the time I own. It's sort of like losing a wallet full of money, you feel bad because you didn't get to spend it on what you wanted. Someone else spent it for you instead. I aim to fix this in the next week.

Time doesn't grow. You can't speed up or slow down time. You can't collect interest on your time (because you can't save it.) You can't spend it at a rate any faster or slower than the second hand on a clock.

Since time is limited, in both how many hours we have per day and how many days we have in our lives (that part is different for everyone) I plan to start spending mine more wisely and trying to reclaim ownership of the time I've got. Less doing stuff that I have to do and more doing stuff that I want to do.

missing out on life?

2009-05-18T22:34:00.000-07:00

This post may sound ridiculous considering that I just spent the weekend hanging out with friends, going out to dinner, and playing golf...but hear me out.

Lately I've been feeling pretty overwhelmed. Between work, school, getting ready for the baby, and all the million other things going on in my life, I just haven't been my calm, cool, stress-free self. I don't think reading this blog post helped: The 7 Traits of the Free Man.

I'm not saying I don't like my job, quite the contrary. And I highly doubt I want to be an entrepreneur (they have crazier schedules than anyone!) But the part about owning your own time is what really stuck with me. In my case, I think my current stress is coming from two things: not enough time and lack of control over my time.

Not enough time
I think everyone's felt like this at some point so it's nothing new. Put simply, I think I've just stretched myself too thin and the effects are finally catching up to me. I feel stupid complaining about anything in my life, because I have a great life. In fact, I feel like I'm finally at the point in my life where I've got a wife I love, a baby on the way, a good job, a nice place to live, and enough money to be comfortable. It's what I've always wanted. But this is also the problem. I am finally at this stage and I don't have time to enjoy any of it.

I'm jealous of the people who can come home from work and just relax. Maybe that means watching some TV, cooking dinner, going for a walk, reading, or playing video games -- none of which I seem to have time for. (Exception being my birthday weekend when I told myself I wasn't doing anything that wasn't fun. That was my gift to myself.) It sounds cliche, but these ought to be the best years of my life and I'm spending them slaving away between work and school. It's made me realize the true value of time. The problem is that there's only a limited quantity of it. This leads me to my next point...

Lack of control over my time
I've got never-ending "To Do" lists for work, school, and home. I rush through one task just so I can immediately move onto another. I get home from work and need to start studying. I finish studying and I need to do something around the house. There's never any time for "nothing." I think I've forgotten how to relax. And all of the things I'm doing, I feel like I'm not the one deciding what I should spend my time on. Everything is a "have to do" rather than a "want to do." I don't know why, but it seems like I'm letting everyone else dictate how I spend my time. I mean, I haven't even gotten around to setting up the Nintendo Wii I got my birthday (9 days ago.) I want to set it up, I want to play Wii games but when I prioritize it against all the stuff I have to do I just never get to it.

So that's my rant. I feel like I don't have enough time to enjoy life. As I said, I'm sure this is nothing new. One possible remedy might be drastic simplification and a reduction of commitments. (Is the MBA really worth all the added stress?)

the world today

2009-05-16T13:59:00.001-07:00

Today I turn 30. This video reminded me that even though a lot has changed in the first 30 years of my life, even more will change in the next 30.

one more picture from mothers day

2009-05-11T20:42:00.001-07:00

One last photo to share with all of you. This one taken by my dad.

(almost) mother's day

2009-05-10T23:07:00.000-07:00

Today we spent Mother's Day with both of the Moms here in Burlingame. We enjoyed a great, late lunch at Il Fornaio, which is right around the corner from our place. Since Danielle only has about 5 more weeks until her due date, it was nice that everyone came to visit us rather than us having to travel somewhere.

Danielle is just barely missing out on Mother's Day this year. But if all goes according to plan, Baby Chiaro will be here in time for me to celebrate Father's Day! I know he'll be just out of the womb, but that's no excuse for not getting his dad a gift! Just kidding.

My photography-skilled brother Drew took some nice pictures. Enjoy!

marketing is really the study of stereotypes

2009-05-05T23:26:00.000-07:00

Considering I just had my marketing mid-term tonight, I figured this was a good chance to post this to my blog.

This is the first marketing class I've had in my MBA program and I like it, a lot! I realized that I actually do a fair bit of marketing in my current job. So not only do I like the class, but it's immediately applicable to stuff I'm working on. In fact, on Monday I was able to put some of the market segmentation stuff into use at work which not helped me do my job but it also helped me study for my exam.

In addition to learning what marketing is not (it's not advertising or trying to sell a product, but more about understanding the needs of customers so that you build something they want or need) I'm starting to understand what marketing is.

Marketing is the study of stereotypes.

More accurately, market segmentation, which is the basis of most marketing decisions, is all about stereotypes. The whole goal of segmenting a market is to figure out who needs your product. (Or to identify certain needs and then go build a product that addresses them.) Hopefully you can then tie those needs to some identifiable characteristics like age, gender, location, education, income, whatever because it's hard to locate customers based on needs. (They don't run around with a sticker on their head that says what they need.) But in this segmentation exercise you typically score different groups on different variables. These groups (or segments) are really just stereotypes. They're groups of people who have a common need or common characteristic. They could be "musicians" or "artists" or "gadget geeks". Admit it, when you read each of those names an image of a typical musician, artist, or gadget geek probably jumped into your mind right? Like for the musician you might have imagined someone carrying a guitar, wearing ripped jeans, relaxed, casual, smoking a cigarette, being the life of a party, and maybe playing music in a cafe. They fit some stereotype.

So to be good at marketing, I think you need to be good at stereotyping or, more accurately, be good at grouping people into segments that need your product.

the best option for sharing photos online?

2009-04-14T18:00:00.000-07:00

I often have more photos to share than I actually post to this blog. But I've nearly maxed out the storage for my Picasa Web Albums (can you believe that you only get 1 GB for photo storage but Gmail gives you 7 GB for email?) so I am trying to decide what to do. I'd love to hear any of your recommendations, so either email me or leave them in the comments.

What's the best photo sharing site?

Here are some of the options I'm considering, as well as a few pro's and con's that I see for each:

Upgrade my Picasa storage
I can upgrade to 10GB for $20/year. That's not too bad and seems on par with other paid photo storage services. I already use the Picasa desktop application, so the integration between that and the web is really nice. Picasa allows user comments, but there isn't much of a community feeling like there is on Flickr (where random people will comment on your photos and you can add them to "pools" of commonly themed photos from people around the world.) The Picasa Web Albums interface is nice, although the pictures would look crisper if they were on a black background. Facial recognition is also a plus.

Delete some of my existing photos to free up Picasa space
Obviously I have all these photos on my hard drive. But I like sharing them. I'm not a great photographer, but I do alright I think. I could replace the old stuff with newer stuff but then pictures embedded in my old blog posts will be broken. I like having the blog as a record of my experiences so this seems like the worst option.

Flickr
Flickr is pretty popular, especially among the pros. Which is weird, because their site interface sucks. The comments and community though are probably my biggest attractions to Flickr. I also like how you can add to "Pools" of photos such as the Unclutterer Workspaces Pool. Also with Flickr you are limited on your uploads per month but not total storage.

SmugMug
Personally, I think the photos on SmugMug look the best. Perhaps it has to do with the black background interface. It just makes them pop more. I don't know much about SmugMug except that it's $40/year. I have no idea about the ease of uploading, commenting, or community aspects.

What other options should I consider? What would you recommend?

trent reznor continues to innovate

2009-04-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

One reason I like the band Nine Inch Nails is because front man Trent Reznor is a smart dude. (He's also a total computer/gadget geek which ranks him high in my book.) He's been getting a lot of coverage recently (and even a case study) about how he's revolutionizing the dying music industry. The music business has lost it's way and he's doing what any good musician should do...innovating. His innovations range from free music distribution, over-the-top visual effects at concerts, alternative reality games, online communities (www.nin.com), user generated content (remix.nin.com), and limited edition merchandise.

His most recent project is the upcoming launch of a Nine Inch Nails iPhone app aimed at NIN fans. In the video below, Reznor, Rob Sheridan, and Kevin Rose give a sneak peak at what the application can do. On the surface it just seems sort of geeky and cool, but if you pay close attention you can see how this ties into Trent's new business model for the music industry. The app gives NIN the ability to connect with fans and gives them a reason to buy stuff. (By the way, I love the dining room table they're sitting at.)

NIN: Access iPhone app walkthrough with Trent Reznor, Rob Sheridan, and special guest Kevin Rose from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.

If you're interested in more, Reznor did an interview with Kevin Rose on Digg Dialog answering plenty of fan questions. In addition to questions about the music industry, some more entertaining ones were "What's the most embarrassing song on your ipod?" and "What gadget can't you live without?"

quick blog check-in from healdsburg

2009-03-25T18:59:00.001-07:00

Danielle and I are in Healdsburg enjoying our "babymoon". We'd never been here before so it's a completely new experience for us. The town is small, very small...but that's cool cause we have plenty of time to check everything out at a leisurely pace without feeling rushed.

We're staying at Hotel Healdsburg, which normally would be way out of our price range -- but we got a good deal. It's right on the main town square. I'm glad Danielle and I both agree that shelling out some extra bucks to stay at a nice place is worth it. The hotel can make or break a vacation, especially if you plan to spend a lot of time there (such as in a quieter, slower paced town.) Looking back to the "crappy" vacations I remember, they all included a "crappy" hotel. But all the nice places I've stayed have always been great trips. Aside from a cool design, another nice thing about this hotel is that everything is included with the price of your room. Breakfast? Included. Snacks in your room? Included. Everything in your mini-bar fridge? Included.

So what'd we do so far? Mainly eat and drink. I've been wine tasting both in town (yesterday) and out at wineries (today) while my pregnant wife plays sober driver. During our winery tour today we also stopped by Lake Sonoma and saw the fish hatchery.

Last night though Danielle said the funniest thing while we were at dinner. Just before we left our room, they had turned down the bed and put out two chocolates for us. Danielle wanted to eat hers before dinner but I convinced her to wait until we got back. While at dinner (I was eating a massive burrito) she turns to me and says, "Maybe if you're too full, I get to eat both chocolates." I don't know why but it was hilarious at the time...and she did eat both when we got back.

the beginning of our stay-cation

2009-03-20T19:10:00.000-07:00

Danielle and are both off work through all of next week. It's sort of a "babymoon" -- like a honeymoon but a little vacation that you take before your baby arrives. (Since it's probably the last time you'll be able to relax!)

Day one of the staycation we slept in then went to H&R Block to do our taxes. Fun huh?! Actually, it sort of was and it definitely felt like a vacation. (Well once we were done with the taxes.) We had lunch outdoors in Palo Alto at a little French cafe (I had croque madame!) and that evening we went up to San Francisco to try to get last minute tickets for Wicked. We didn't get them, but we decided to grab dinner in the city anyway (nothing fancy but it was one of my favorites - Chevy's!)

Day two (today) we went to Sausalito. We had a nice lunch in the old Fort Baker at a place called Murray's Circle. Then we just sort of walked around Sausalito, ate some ice cream, and watched the boats. The weather was unbelievable and I think I even got a bit sun-burnt. All-in-all it's been pretty relaxing.

And it sort of made me sad that I had to take vacation days to enjoy stuff that's right in my own backyard. I mean, what's preventing us from doing this stuff on a regular weekend or even weeknight? We could easily leave work early one day to go see Wicked, but it just seems so much more stressful to try to do it on a work night. Why? I think part of it is that if we would have trekked up to SF on a worknight and not gotten the tickets we'd have been really bummed. But on staycation, we don't have a plan or agenda so it's easier to just roll with it.

It was nice to go to Sausilito on a weekday though. There was no traffic, no crowds, no stress.

(Oh, I also got to try out my new 70-300mm zoom lens but although it was beautiful in Sausilito, it was a bit hazy looking across the bay at San Francisco.)

the facebook fallacy

2009-03-07T18:40:00.000-08:00

The other day I posted a video titled, "25 Things I hate about Facebook" Apparently, the video resonated with a lot of folks. So let me tell you about something that really bothers me about Facebook. (Disclaimer: Yes, I am on Facebook and I use it frequently but I wouldn't say I'm a power user.)

As most of you know, Facebook has this feature where you update your status. People typically use this to decribe what they're doing and the feature is actually prefilled with your name and the word "is" (e.g. "Vince is [blank]") Sure, some folks use it to describe how they are feeling but a lot describe what they're doing.

The problem is that if you describe what you're doing, it's a lie. Let me illustrate:

Dave is surfing.
No, Dave is updating Facebook.

Paco is working out at the gym.
No, Paco is updating Facebook.

John is on a date with a hot model.
No, John is updating Facebook. (And ignoring a hot model!)

I'll grant some leeway to anyone who updates their status with a mobile device (iPhone, Blackberry, whatever.) You can tell who those people are because it has a little picture of a cell phone next to their status message.

Although I think this is the most popular feature of Facebook, it's odd that people spend so much time telling others what they're doing rather than actually doing whatever they're doing.

a glimpse of a geeky future

2009-03-06T19:58:00.001-08:00

This is an impressive look at what Microsoft thinks technology will be like in the future. Pay close attention to see what's really going on...like digital newspapers, coffee mugs with LCDs that tell the temperature, virtual termostates on the walls, and a lot more. (Video is 5 minutes but there is a highlight reel here: http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090228/microsoft-office-labs-vision-2019-video/

some good lessons from a facebook veteran

2009-03-03T22:44:00.000-08:00

keeping in touch with friends

2009-03-01T21:56:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been over two weeks since I last blogged. Part of the reason is probably because I was sick and the other part is that I've actually been having a bit of a life lately.

Last weekend was jam-packed. I hung out with some ex-Ducati friends on Friday, went to SF for dinner Saturday, and then went back to SF for lunch on Sunday. All three events were opportunities to catch up with friends, which is important because I consciously set a goal to try to be better about keeping touch with people this year. But what I came to realize is that keeping in touch doesn't always have to mean hanging out in person. With everyone's busy lives it's often hard to find time to get together...just ask our friends Nate and Tracy who we've had to postpone plans over a month with!

I have one friend, who lives in Portland, that calls me every two or three weeks. He doesn't want anything, doesn't need help with anything, and he's too far away for us to get together for dinner. But you know what? I appreciate that he goes out of his way to keep in touch. All this time, I don't know if I've ever called him. But he's totally kept our relationship alive because he calls me just to chat. We usually talk for 15 or 30 minutes about topics ranging from work, vacations, or nerdy techie stuff. It's nice.

I've come to appreciate this because I know how horrible I am about keeping in touch with people. Sure I'll send an email, or comment on someone's Facebook status but is that the same thing? And if you're not in the habit of talking to someone by phone regularly, is it weird to start calling them out of the blue? I guess I'll just have to find out. Hopefully, I can be more like my friend in Portland and do my part to keep in touch with people.

(Note: this topic also has me wondering about the definition of "friend." The term seems to be used pretty loosely now. I have 407 "friends" on Facebook. My Gmail address book has 584 contacts. Do I plan to call all these people every two weeks? Probably not, sorry.)

a new computer

2009-02-12T22:00:00.000-08:00

I'd been considering buying a new home computer for well over a year now. I kept going back and forth about if I really needed it. I mean, the machine I was using was an old Pentium 4, 2.5 ghz, 1 GB RAM (which was the max supported!) 533 mhz FSB, 160 GB Dell. It treated me well over the past 6+ years but was starting to show it's age even when trying to do basic web browsing while playing a YouTube video. (With dual monitors, it's easy to multi-task but the computer just wasn't up to it!)

I use a Mac for work and love it, so I was considering one for at home too. But I just couldn't justify the price difference. I didn't want to spend a ton on a new system since we've had a bunch of other expenses lately so I ended up with a Dell.

I bit the bullet a couple weeks ago and now I'm up and running with my new machine. Here are the specs for anyone interested: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.3 ghz, 1333 mhz FSB, 4 GB RAM, 400 GB hard disk, eVGA nvidia 9600 GT 512 MB video card, DVD-DL burner. I'm still using my old monitors (dual 17" Planars) but wow, the difference in speed is shocking! I had no idea what I was missing. And the best part, the new machine was only $499 + $80 for the video card! Since I've been selling a bunch of old junk on craigslist lately, I've almost already paid for it with that money so it didn't really cost anything to upgrade after all.

thoughts on google latitude and other location aware services

2009-02-11T22:36:00.001-08:00

(I'd like to emphasize that this is my personal blog. The views expressed on these pages are mine alone and not those of my employer.)

The other week, Google released a service called Latitude which I think is pretty neat. There have been other companies doing location-aware software too, so it's definitely an emerging trend. Within the first day of launch, I had a couple of friends already sharing their location with me. Basically, this program lets all your buddies know where you are (either by computer or cell phone) so that you can meet up, find each other, or whatever. Cool idea huh? Well, I'm sure there will be plenty of interesting stories that come along about how some guy saw his friend at his girlfriend's house and it turned out she was cheating on him.

At first, I thought it was a bit creepy to let people know where I am. Sure, I have a blog and a Facebook page, but I control that content (for the most part). The thing is, you have control over this too. But that's beside the point. I think that even if you are philosophically against this type of thing, it still might be a good idea to share your location with your spouse or another family member. Everyday we hear tragedies about people getting lost, injured, kidnapped, or stranded somewhere. By enabling Latitude, loved ones could find you (or at least your cell phone) even if you were unable to phone them due to injury or worse. If you're the type of person who has an earthquake emergency kit in your home, this service might be perfect for you. Not to mention it'd be a great way for parents to keep tabs on their kids (I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing though.)

Oh, and remember how in spy/FBI/crime movies 5 or 10 years ago it was always such a huge ordeal to try to trace a phone call from a cell phone to determine the location. If services like Latitude are available to consumers now, I can only imagine the technology the government and military are using.

michael masnick the trent reznor case study

2009-02-06T14:52:00.000-08:00

I've written on this blog about how Nine Inch Nails is shaking up the music industry in terms of concerts and free music. But here is an excellent presentation that sums it all up.

For those of you who are interested in marketing and love music, check out this case study by Michael Masnick of Techdirt.com. This is a great summary of how Nine Inch Nails has been successful in a world where MP3 piracy, DRM, and RIAA lawsuits are so prevalent. The music industry has been hit hard in the past few years and Michael provides some lessons to be learned from this failing industry.

burlingame avenue feeling the economic crisis

2009-02-03T18:00:00.000-08:00

Burlingame Avenue is a trendy little shopping district with plenty of big name retailers like J.Crew, GAP, Pottery Barn, and even the controversial Apple store. And for the most part, I've always thought it was pretty insulated from economic downturns because of the wealth in the area. But apparently I was wrong. This past Sunday I noticed quite a few "For Lease" signs on storefronts I'd grown accustomed to seeing. It seems that the current economy is even taking it's toll on retailers here.

I'm sure commercial leases on Burlingame Avenue are expensive and from what I've heard, a handful of only four or five people own most of the property. It's tough to see some of these retailers shutting their doors and it's more pronounced when many close at the same time. There's never been a shortage of turnover on the Ave but usually it's confined to smaller businesses and restaurants. In the six years I've lived here, we've seen lots of places come and go but never to to the extent of today.

I hope the trend stops soon because I'd hate to see Burlingame Avenue lose it's appeal. (And that would certainly hurt home prices in the immediate area.) The big retailers thrive on each other since they serve to attract different customers and allow people to do lots of shopping at once. I mean, if there were only the one or two stores, would people from all over the Peninsula come shopping on Burlingame Ave? I doubt it. People like that there is a bunch of stuff all within walking distance of each other. And for residents like myself, I love the convenience of having these stores so close-by.

The Gallery(?) is closed on Primrose Road

Ann Taylor is closed on Burlingame Ave

BabyStyle is closed on Burlingame Ave (note: there are like 4 other baby stores still!)

MacGerathy's(?) is closed on Burlingame Ave

Local collectibles place is closed on Burlingame Ave

BEBE is closed on Burlingame Ave

Eve's is closed on Primrose Road

But new brands are on their way in too. American Apparel opened just this past month.

new baby, new furniture (for the parents!)

2009-02-01T21:48:00.001-08:00

Having a baby on the way gave us a bit of an excuse to buy some new furniture. Since it's pretty likely that either Danielle's or my parents may be "crashing" at our place periodically we thought it'd be useful to have a couch with a pull-out bed in the living room. And what a perfect opportunity to redecorate the whole living room! Actually, we kept the tables and stuff but we did end up getting two new chairs to complete the set. Check out the pictures below to see the new set-up. (By the way, despite the modern style of the leather chairs, they swivel, rock, and recline!) I'm realizing that I an an interior design geek. We went with contrasting rather than matching chairs...what do you think?

From Condo Remodel

vinny's guide to buying a car

2009-01-11T23:17:00.000-08:00

Since Danielle is pregnant, we figured we'll need a bigger car within the next 5 months. No, this doesn't mean we're selling out and getting a big SUV. But we at least needed something with four doors, so we bought her a used 2005 Acura TL. (See photo.) I hadn't bought a car in awhile, but over my relatively short 13 years of driving I've either bought or helped buy 11 vehicles. (7 cars and 4 motorcycles.) Here's a list of my recommendations when buying a car:

Determine what you want - You don't need to know the specifics, but it's a good idea to have a general sense of what you want in your new car. Do you want an SUV? Pickup truck? 4-door sedan? Sports car? Think about what suits your needs. From that, come up with a list of 4 or 5 models that you like within that category then go test drive them. You may be able to eliminate some once you see them in person or if some are outside your budget. I like to keep a spreadsheet with the pros and cons about what I liked and disliked about each model. Usually, I end up with 1 or 2 that are clearly at the top of my list.
Rank what's important - After you know the models, if you are buying used, then you should rank the features in order of importance. Since you aren't buying a new car, you don't get to choose all the individual options and you'll likely need to compromise. Maybe you can get the blue one but it doesn't have a navigation system. Or you can get one with navigation but it's got to be black, it's $3,000 more, and has more miles. So think about what's most important. Here are some categories to consider: year, mileage, color, safety, fuel economy, leather interior, features (CD changer, navigation, sunroof, etc.), manual/automatic, horsepower/engine size.
Avoid buying new - A new car is not usually a good move financially. As soon as you put the first 100 miles on it, it's depreciated at least 10%. Let someone else take that initial depreciation hit so that you don't have to. I've found that buying used cars around three years old are your best bet. This is because they often still have some of the factory warranty remaining (which is transferable to the new owner) and they typically have low mileage so they're still in good condition. They've also already depreciated a fair bit so you can get a good car that's relatively new for a decent price. Most leases are for three years so dealers will have cars around this age on their lots. Lease returns can be a great buy since they are typically well cared for and the leasee is required to stay under a certain number of miles per year.
Do your research - Find out what this particular car is worth. Check the online sources like kbb.com, edmunds.com, and even get some "comps" of cars actually for sale on sites like craigslist.org or autotrader.com. Be sure to enter all the details of the car you are looking at in order to get a good estimate of it's value. It's also a good idea to check the CarFax which tracks a vehicles history of accidents and thefts. To research fuel economy and safety ratings check out fueleconomy.gov and safercar.gov.
If buying from a dealer - buy at the end of the month (or even better, the end of the year!) Dealers have sales quotas to meet and in a poor economy they can be motivated just to sell another vehicle to help make their numbers. Buying at the end of the month, end of the quarter, or end of the year gives you an advantage in the negotiation process. The dealer is more likely to make concessions during these times.
Ask lots of questions - This is especially true if you are buying from a private party. (Dealers often won't know much about the history of a car.) Here are some questions to get started: Why are you selling it? How long have you had it? Are you the first owner? How far was your commute? Was it garaged? Has it ever been in any accidents? Does it need or has it had any major service recently? Are there any problems? Do you have receipts or records of the maintenance work? Their answers can reveal a lot about whether you should buy the car or not. One hint, if the owner has a folder or binder of all the receipts this is a good sign because it shows they're organized and keep good records. People like this are usually responsible and take good care of their cars. Also, higher end cars are usually owned by people who have the money to take proper care of them. If someone can afford an $80,000 Porsche, the chances are they didn't skip the oil changes to save money. The contrary is also true, a cheaper car like a Toyota Corolla is more likely to be owned by someone with less money and may not have gotten all the service work it needed. Watch out for cars that are known status symbols (like BMWs) because often people stretch themselves to buy the car and then don't have enough money to properly maintain it.
Get everything in writing - Don't completely trust someone selling the car when they say that they'll "throw in the custom stereo" or "include a new set of tires." Be sure to get promises like these in writing, especially when working with a dealer. Once you sign their contract, they aren't obligated to give you anything that wasn't stated in the contract.
Don't ever pay asking price - Everyone expects to negotiate when buying (or selling) a car so never pay the asking price. You'd be surprised at how flexible some individuals (and dealers) can be with asking price. I've paid between $2,000 to $10,000 less than the asking price on every car I've bought. You won't know if they'll take the offer unless you ask and the worst they can say is "No." But before you make an offer, have a maximum in mind that you'd be willing to pay for the car and don't be afraid to walk away if you get to that max. (I've had a dealership manager stop my car in the parking lot as I was leaving to make a counter-offer when I walked away.) I'm not going to cover the details of negotiation here (entire books have been written on the subject) but remember that you always want to negotiate when buying a car.
Pay cash - I like paying cash because it keeps things simple. When you start to throw financing into the mix, dealers will often try to pull a fast one on you. They'll go back and forth between quoting the price in monthly payments and quoting the total price of the car. They also use the "well, if you can do it for price X, that's only $20 more dollars per month in terms of your payment." Meanwhile, this sneaky tactic can have you paying thousands more for the car even though it doesn't sound like much on a monthly basis. When paying cash you can negotiate purely on the price of the car (plus taxes and registration) so you know what you're getting and how much you're getting it for.
Get the car checked out by a pro - If you are buying a car with over 40,000 miles it might not be a bad idea to take it to a reputable shop to have it checked out. Most places will do a "pre-purchase" type of inspection for around $150. If you are serious about the car, this is a good investment to ensure you don't get a vehicle that's been abused. I mentioned over 40,000 miles because you'd have to do something really bad to hurt a car in fewer miles than that.
Look the car over yourself - This is one of my favorites. Check out the tire tread, check under the hood. Is it clean? Does it look like the car was well taken care of? Can you tell if someone was smoking in the car? Is the ashtray dusty from cigarettes? Look over the body of the car very closely. (By the way, never inspect or test drive a car at night, you'll miss things.) I find that you don't notice every detail about a car until the first time that you wash it yourself. So pretend like you're washing the car. This will force you to look over every inch of the car and notice any chips, scratches, or dents. (I even make the swirly motion with my hand as I do my fake-wash while inspecting the car.)
Evaluate the mileage - Does the car's condition seem appropriate for the mileage on it? Anything under 30k should feel almost brand new. Remember that most cars need to have the timing belt replaced somewhere around 70k-100k. This is an expensive ($500-$1500) job so if the car is near that mileage you should ask if it's already been done.
Evaluate the options - Does the car have the options you want? How does it's price compare to similarly equipped cars? Be sure to consider mileage and other differences so that you aren't comparing apples to oranges.
Evaluate the color choices - Do you have a favorite color? When buying used you can't always be picky. Is this something you're willing to compromise on? If not, keep waiting until you find one in the color you want but be ready to make trade-offs in terms of mileage, options, or price.
Don't forget about tax - Tax on a big ticket item like a car can really add up so remember to factor that in. You don't pay the tax to the seller, you pay it to the DMV. (With a dealer you'll often pay the tax to them since they'll handle all the paperwork, but with a private party you won't.)

Although this is far from complete, it should give you a good sense of what to look for when buying your next car. If you have suggestions or additions, leave them in the comments.

enjoying the simple things in life

2009-01-10T22:42:00.000-08:00

As Danielle mentioned, our holiday vacation wasn't long enough. This week, I went back to both work and school...and it was a painful transition after 12 days off. At the office everyone asks "How was your vacation?" and more than usual I found myself replying simply, "Relaxing." So I took a few minutes to reflect on all the things I enjoyed during my break from work and school. These are the things I missed when I was busy being caught up in the daily grind.

I find I rarely appreciate the simple things in life and one of those vacations where you just stay at home is a good chance to do that.

Blogging - Ok, I didn't blog a lot over the holidays but I did blog more than I had been. I realized how much I missed this. It's a good outlet. It gives me a chance to think and then share those thoughts in a semi-cohesive way. (This is debatable.)

Reading - I caught up on a bunch of reading over the holidays. As most of you know, I don't read a ton of books and when I do, they are of the self-help variety like "Your Money or Your Life." But I did start a book my brother gave me for Christmas and I caught up on a ton of magazines and blogs that I'd been neglecting. This felt great. I learned a lot, and it was relaxing to sit until 11 o'clock in the morning with a cup of coffee and a stack of magazines.

Watching movies - Danielle and I also caught up on some movies over our vacation. Since we don't have TV, it's nice to be able to sit down for an evening of entertainment. And it gives me a chance to play with the home theater system (which by the way I modified to stream iTunes music to and control it via iPhone using the Apple Remote app. This is awesome!)

Going for walks - I've mentioned before how refreshing going for a walk can be and I walked a bunch over the holidays. It made me realize (once again) how much I like being close to our downtown and having everything I need within walking distance.

Taking it all in - I didn't have a very good title for this and didn't know how to describe it. Maybe it's "being in the moment" or "being present". Whatever it is, I like it. Over the vacation I spent time taking in my environment -- sort of like people watching I guess. I found I was appreciating the little things that I normally take for granted. Like, I'd walk downtown past buildings I go past everyday but over the holidays I actually looked at the buildings and noticed things about them I hadn't noticed before, like the architecture or windows or design. I also noticed people more. How strangers were dressed, how they acted, how they interacted with others. I guess I was in observation mode since I was so much more relaxed and not letting my environment be a blur around me while rushing to do the next thing,

Making dinner - Neither Danielle nor I are gourmet chefs but we're learning to love cooking. Usually we just don't have time to plan and prepare a proper meal. But over the holidays we made a few. I'd even go so far as to say it was fun. This is something I should make more time for in my normal routine. All it seems to take is a little planning ahead to make sure you've got the right ingredients. But with Safeway just two blocks away and open 24 hours, I can use their store like my personal pantry.

Seeing friends - I enjoyed meeting up with a bunch of old friends over the holidays. However, it also made me feel sad because I've done such a terrible job keeping in touch with people. Many of us are guilty of this, we just get so busy with life that we neglect to keep in touch with those that matter. I hope I'll be better about this in 2009. Sometimes it means just giving someone a call; you don't always have to cram time to "hang out" into your already busy life.

Not feeling rushed - This was probably the biggest thing for me and it ties back to the "taking it all in" mentioned above. It felt great not to be rushed for once. I spend so much of my life hurrying to get one thing done so that I can move on to the next. And it bothers me that I do this both at work and at home. This is probably because I have too much to do, not enough time, or both. But over the holidays I had plenty of time. I could take things slow and I never felt the need to hurry through something just so I could move on. This allowed me to enjoy being in the moment more and to experience more since my attention wasn't divided. I need to do this more often even if it means saying no to some stuff so that I don't over-commit myself or spreading projects out over longer periods so that I can tackle them at a more relaxed pace. Or maybe it just means trying to do less and not letting others dictate my priorities or time.

Anyway, that's what I learned over the holidays. I hope others enjoyed their vacations as much as I did.

nine inch nails leading radical changes in the music industry by distributing concert video for free

2009-01-10T22:10:00.000-08:00

The popularity of the iPod, iTunes music store, and MP3s has forever changed the music industry. The big record labels have lost control. They've lost control of their audience, artists, and their revenue. Fueling this fire is Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor who recently told fans to steal his music because he was outraged at the price of his CD in Australia.

But rather than label him a heretic, I think Trent is a visionary when it comes to the music industry. He knows that the old record labels' model doesn't work anymore and rather than hang-on for dear life (as the labels seem to be doing) he is embracing the change and leading it. His last two albums were released for free over the internet. Other bands (Radiohead) also did this last year. In the process NIN also released many tracks in editable formats similar to what they use in the studio and therefore created a strong online community filled with remixed versions of the music.

The other day, NIN took this a step further. Everyone thought it was odd that three of the recent concerts had "relaxed camera policies", including the Sacramento show I went to. Anyone could bring a camera to the concert; digital, video, SLR, whatever. And now the cat is out of the bag. NIN released 400 GBs (yes gigabytes, not megabytes) of concert video through their website www.nin.com. This is so much data that I wouldn't even be able to put it on my computer if I deleted everything from my hard drive, including the operating system! (I only have 180 GB.)

This is an interesting experiment for a couple of reasons:

It tests the capabilities of technology. They're using bit torrent to distribute the files and this demonstrates how much the internet has evolved in the past 9 years. Most people wouldn't have dreamed of transferring 400 gigs of data over the internet back in 2000. Few people even had hard drives that big.
They gave this footage away for free. Sure, this is raw footage but it's certainly valuable. However, thinking about the cost to produce and distribute a DVD from it using the record label's old model would have been expensive. Shooting the video is the easy (and cheap) part.
They understand user generated content. One of the reason's YouTube is so popular is because of this trend towards UGC (User Generated Content), meaning videos that people make themselves. As I mentioned in my post about democratizing creativity, video editing equipment is so affordable and easy to use that almost anyone can make something. I think Nine Inch Nails is counting on that happening. By releasing all this raw HD video, some skilled editors will put together one hell of a good concert movie.

Nine Inch Nails is way ahead of their time doing this type of thing. But the question is, how do they make money from it? Will the trend be that musicians make their money doing concerts but give their music away for free? I'd be all for that since it'd mean more shows for the true fans.

democratizing creativity

2009-01-04T09:21:00.000-08:00

If you are a computer geek like me and understand RAM, terabytes, quad-core processors, and other lingo then you'll get a kick out of this funny video.

But what I find impressive about this video is that it's a great example of how modern technology is enabling people to be more creative.

I have a lot of respect for anyone in a creative profession: photographers, web designers, musicians, cinematographers, writers, etc. In fact, I love reading the stories at www.apple.com/pro. I think this is because I'm not that creative myself, so I appreciate these skills that I don't have. But what I'm noticing is that there are more and more creative, clever videos like this one on YouTube and I can't help but think that this is in part due to the changes in technology.

First, digital video cameras and video editing equipment (such as your computer) are readily available in nearly every household. This is a dramatic shift from 10 years ago when you needed some pretty fancy equipment to put together a video that didn't look like a home movie. Not only that, but the video editing software such as iMovie make it easy for almost anyone to make a video even without prior experience.

Second, the bandwidth is available for streaming video on the internet. Obviously I don't need to go into much explanation here because I think the popularity of YouTube pretty much describes what I'm talking about. That site could not have been successful without high-speed internet becoming standard for most homes.

When you put these two things together, you have an environment that seems to breed more creativity than in the past. (And higher quality stuff too.) Or at least more expression of creativity because the final product is now easier to make and it's easier to share with a wide audience. This gives people an outlet for their creativity, a way to express themselves and maybe even a chance to enjoy their fifteen minutes of fame. There are probably a bunch of other benefits to this too. What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Here are some other examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0_LpjJfd20
http://valleywag.gawker.com/5045660/5-rules-for-making-a-company-video-worth-watching

babies

2009-01-02T08:01:00.000-08:00

A lot of my friends had babies in 2008. And since they gave parenthood such rave reviews, we figured we'd give it a try too. Yup, Danielle and I are having a baby! (Well, Danielle is the one having it.)

This brings a whole lot of crazy emotions. I'm definitely excited, but also scared! But I figure that's pretty normal for any new soon-to-be father. It was definitely something we were planning but it happened a little quicker than we thought. Anyway, add that to the list of what I've got going on in my ever busy life -- demanding job? check! rigorous MBA program? check! baby? check!

Luckily we already finished remodeling the condo. :)

on vacation

2009-01-01T19:14:00.000-08:00

I've been on vacation, enjoying the holidays with family and friends for the past couple weeks (I've been off work since Dec. 24th) and until now that's meant I've also been on vacation from blogging. Granted, my blogging activity ain't what it used to be. Life can be overwhelming and recently I've let it get the best of me. I was so busy towards the end of the school quarter that I didn't have much time for anything besides school and work. This upsets me. This isn't what I want my life to be. This isn't the kind of balance I want. I love living "normal" life when I'm not at school or work and that's become very apparently during my time off. Even the boring, routine, simple things like grocery shopping, walking outside, or running to the post office are enjoyable. Maybe I have a whacked sense of what's fun but even doing errands I still like being out and about in the environment called the world.

excitement in burlingame

2008-12-24T12:22:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas eve and the police and firefighters are busy in
Burlingame. A transformer blew just across the street from our condo
which means we are without power for a bit. Luckily, I can still blog
via iPhone. :)

nine inch nails in sacramento

2008-12-14T22:14:00.000-08:00

NIN was back in California for the second half of their tour so Drew, Jocelyn, Aaron and I decided to make the long drive up to Sacramento to see them again. This is one of the most impressive concerts I've seen; the visual effects are cutting edge -- something you'd expect from a guy who makes albums on a computer.

But Trent Reznor isn't just a computer geek musician. Lately, he has fired his record label and has been pushing the limits on giving away his music for free. (No wonder they're doing such a long tour this year, it's how they make money!) The last few shows he went a step further and posted a message on nin.com saying that there would be a "relaxed camera policy" in effect. Which meant you could bring still or video cameras into the concert! I took my Canon XTi DSLR but I wished I had a zoom lens to get some better shots. Lots of other people shot plenty of videos and posted them to YouTube.

NIN - Sacramento Show on YouTube

Check out how Trent interacts with the screen, it senses where he is located and "opens up" a little window there. Oh, and check out the fire and rain around 2:20 into this video.

my first quarter of school is done!

2008-12-12T17:00:00.000-08:00

This week I finished my first quarter of business school at Santa Clara University. Even though I've only had three nights of "freedom" so far, it's an unbelievable weight off my shoulders. I don't think I've ever appreciated my free time as much as I do now. And working a regular work-week feels easy without going to school in the evenings.

But like I said, this is only the end of my first quarter. I still have 11 more to go. There were definitely times toward the end of the quarter where I was having second thoughts about what I'm getting into. It's much harder, and more work than I expected. I don't know how Danielle made it look so easy all these years. Hopefully, the coming quarter will be a bit better. Until then, I'm savoring the 3+ weeks I have off from school.

I haven't been blogging much because I simply haven't had time. So I hope to make up for it the next few weeks.

is facebook good for networking?

2008-12-11T21:47:00.000-08:00

My outlook on networking is different (I think) than most people. I'm a firm believer in the quote, "Networking isn't about who you know. It's about who knows you." I might know a lot of people, but if I call one up and they say "Vince who?" then what good is that?

Taking this a step further, if people know you then it's a much more powerful connection. You've apparently made some sort of lasting impression on them and were somehow memorable. Maybe you've branded yourself well or connected with them about interests or schools or family. Whatever it is, getting people to know and remember you is what counts. (And hopefully they don't know you because you were the drunk guy passed out on the floor at the company party.)

Today I was reading this article on Hollywood style networking and a quote caught my attention.

"Too many people spend too much of their time online," says RoAne. "There's this approach avoidance where we want to approach people but then turn to technology, because the potential rejection seems much easier to deal with." But that alone will not create a network. "People in the entertainment industry show up. They know it's about that face-to-face interaction."

Not only is it about the face-to-face interaction, but it's about you knows you. So, is having a lot of friends on Facebook considered networking? Are these people really your friends? Do they even know you?

go experience something

2008-11-24T20:20:00.000-08:00

My last blog post about time was pretty depressing. (And a few people pointed out that while this is typical of a school-night for me, it might still be optimistic. Meaning, I lowballed my commute which is probably 3 hours on school nights and I didn't mention anything about getting showered and ready in the morning. I promise I shower everyday! I also manage to squeeze in some exercise on non-school nights.)

But this list was still just my regular routine. And life is about experiences, not routines. So I told myself I was going to make more effort to put myself into situations where something interesting might happen. Something unusual, something not-routine. Most people do this regularly, it's called having a life.

So Friday, on a whim, I decided to grab drinks with some friends after work. It was nice to reconnect with folks because we used to have a semi-regular drink night that I'd been bailing on recently because of school.

On Saturday, Danielle was in school so I was pretty much on my own. I decided to hop on BART over to Berkeley to watch the Cal vs. Stanford game at my old apartment building. (It's an ex-frat house right next to the stadium.) The building manager (Bill) had called earlier in the week and said he was going to host a party and was inviting all the alumni. This experience did turn out to be interesting and non-routine. First, Cal won! But I also got to see Bill and some old friends. In fact, the weirdest part was that I randomly ran into three people I didn't expect to see at all. My friend Alex, a guy who worked at the Ducati factory in Italy who I knew, and the lead singer of Counting Crows (Adam Duritz -- who I saw at Henry's Bar.) This wouldn't have happened if I'd been sitting at home doing homework. I'm glad I went.

(By the way, not much has changed at my old place in the past 6 years. Of course it still has an amazing view of San Francisco from the roof. Look closely to see the Golden Gate bridge just under the crane. And I miss the whole Berkeley / Oakland vibe...it's a great place. Burlingame is sometimes a little to "sanitized" for me.)

do you have the time?

2008-11-17T22:18:00.000-08:00

I wanted to follow up on my earlier post about time being our most valuable commodity.

Leo over at Zen Habits asks the reasonable question how many hours are in your day? From the article:

But I sleep about 6 hours a day. Maybe 2 hours are spent eating. Another 2 hours for grooming and driving. Another 3 hours for getting stuff ready for my kids, cooking, cleaning. Another 5 hours doing routine stuff at work and with the blog. Maybe another hour doing errands, paying bills, going to the grocery store, or whatever else needs to be done. Another 2 hours doing communication: email, IM, phones, etc.

In the end, he's only got 3 hours per day to do the things that he wants to do. I've got even less.

Here is a quick analysis of my own life (on a school night):
8 hours - Sleeping
2 hours - Commuting
8 hours - Working
2 hours - Eating
3 hours - Learning (at school)

Total: 23 hours

That leaves me with 1 hour to do something else during the day. Not much. On a non-school day you can cut down the commuting by 0.5 but the learning (in terms of homework) is still at least an hour. I've started to squeeze the gym in on those days so that's another hour.

My question is, where do I find more time? I think perhaps I'm sleeping too much.

And to think, I don't even do some of the stuff Leo lists:
Cleaning? Housekeeper. Shopping? Usually on the weekends. Errands? Squeeze them in where I can. Communicating with friends and loved ones? I should make more time for this. TV? This is a big reason we don't have it...when would we watch? Blogging? I miss it lately.

i wish i could drive like this guy

2008-11-15T22:46:00.001-08:00

new dodge challenger spotted in burlingame ca

2008-11-09T22:37:00.000-08:00

I spotted this down the street from my house and quickly whipped out
my iPhone.

please ignore the "yes on prop 8" ads on my site

2008-11-03T22:53:00.000-08:00

As you may have noticed, I show ads on this blog. It's sort of a test for work.

Anyway, if you see some "Yes on Prop 8" ads on my site, please know that I did not put those there! There are automatically targeted with no control from me and it seems that someone decided today was a good day to spend their massive internet advertising budget by plastering these ads all over the net.

I've taken steps to block these ads so they should disappear in a few hours. Apologies and I hope nobody was offended -- this is not my view and I'm proud to say I've already voted NO on prop 8. (Gotta love absentee ballots.)

time...our most valuable commodity

2008-11-03T22:30:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged in awhile and the reason is time. I simply haven't had enough of it lately and it's forced me to realize how valuable it is. I think a lot of people figure this out late in life. Maybe they're old, or dying, or whatever. Somehow they know that they are running out of time and still have a lot that they'd like to do.

For me, it's about trying to do too much with too little time. I mean, I've had hectic times at other points in my life but nothing as relentless as it is now. Between work, school, and homework, I don't know how I squeeze in anything else. But I do, and for the most part, the stuff I'm squeezing in is usually fun. So I make time for it. But there's only so much time in a day and I end up shaving off time on school, or work, to make room for more. I'm sure a big part of my current time crunch is that this is my first quarter of school and I'm still finding balance. Danielle's been doing it for years so hopefully I'll get the hang of it.

But it's certainly made me realize how valuable time is. It's also helped me prioritize things in my personal life. Sadly, the blog fell to a low priority recently but it shouldn't. It's a good outlet and I enjoy it.

I wonder how other people have so much time? It seems I'm always talking to folks who do yoga and cooking classes and hang out with friends and walk their dog and still find time to watch TV. What's their secret?

I'm going to try to make a change to do less. To cram less into a day. To do less things. To make less commitments. To put less things on my "to-do" list. I'll attempt to apply this at work, school, and home and see how it goes.

do i need an information diet?

2008-10-20T19:00:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if everyone's heard of an information diet but it's a concept from the book "The 4 Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss. I'm not sure if he came up with it, but it's exactly what the name implies. The idea is that in today's world, we spend too much time consuming information. We read the paper, watch TV, read blogs, check email, read RSS feeds, surf the internet, watch YouTube, text message friends...well you get the point. We consume a lot of information. And doing this takes time, something that all of us have very little of. Even worse is when you feel obligated to consume all this stuff. I often think "oh, I gotta check my Google Reader to stay on top of my RSS feeds" or "I need to read through this pile of magazines" but what's funny is that when I was on vacation I didn't seem to care that thousands of feeds piled up in my reader or the magazines filled my mailbox. In fact, I didn't even touch a computer for 11 days and it felt great!

So why is it that when I'm home, I feel this pressure to stay on top of all the information?

Does it somehow make my life better? Doubtful. Does it make me smarter? Probably not. Does it make me better informed? Yeah, but...at what cost?

I think part of the problem is that I've been a sponge for information lately. I read stuff on the internet, I read magazines, I read books, I research random stuff I'm interested in. I can't seem to get enough information. But is that good? It's taking up a lot of time. (Note: I find this new interest in learning to be strange, I certainly wasn't this engaged when I was at U.C. Berkeley.)

I think the key is being selective with the information I consume. Especially now that I've started school again, I'm feeling like I barely have time to breathe. The problem is...I want to consume it. I love reading blogs. I get satisfaction from learning new things.

How do I balance my desire to consume with my limited time?

I admit it, I'm a nerd and I love computers. I love doing things on my computer, whether it's creating or consuming. I want to find and do neat stuff on the computer. That might be editing or sharing photos, reading about the latest gadgets, writing on this blog, or testing out new software. (Luckily I'm not addicted to Facebook, yet.)

Let's take blogs for example. I've got 60 RSS subscriptions to blogs I like to keep up on. Most of these blogs get more than one post per day so it can be a challenge to follow them all. And sure, sometimes a couple days will go by where I haven't checked...but then there's just more to read later. So do I cut some of them out? What if I miss something important or interesting? If I cut them out will I reduce my enjoyment? And magazines, I get a ton of them. I get BusinessWeek and Fortune and Mens Health and a bunch of others. I love reading them, but it takes time.

Should I just eliminate some? It'd certainly give me more time to "live life" and do things rather than just passively consuming information. How do I balance life experiences with my new desire for information?

re-living france - part 5

2008-10-19T20:37:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I'm not done recapping our France trip yet. The other day someone stopped me at work and said, "Hey I didn't know you were in France" and of course I needed to explain that this was back in March/April and I was only just now blogging about it.

So....on to day 7 of the trip.

We were still in Avignon and getting pretty settled in. We found a patisserie that we ate breakfast at every morning but this day our usual waiter wasn't there. This was also our last day in Avignon so we had some time to kill in the morning, which we did at the only Jewish synagogue in town. The place was closed, but we caught the rabbi on his way out (he was listening to his ipod!) and he let us in and showed us around.

We took the bus back to the train station and got on the TGV back to Paris. One guy sitting in our car nearly got thrown off for not having a ticket. Once back in Paris we transferred to the Metro and to our hotel. Again, the metro there is amazing -- they come every 3 minutes on the dot. The hotel was the same one we stayed at during the beginning of the trip (Hotel Muguet) but this time we had a huge triple room which we shared with Drew. He even had his own little room (sort of.)

From 2008 Best of France

That afternoon we walked down to see the mini-Statue of Liberty which coincidently is right near Kennedy Ave. and Ben Franklin Parkway. And everyone thinks the French don't like Americans. After all, they did give our Statue of Liberty to us as a gift.

From 2008 Best of France

On the way back we went past the museum of man (I think?) which had a great view of the Eiffel Tower. This is the spot where everyone takes romantic photos and Danielle and I did the same. The problem was, the battery on the camera started to run out and we had to switch to the backup point and shoot.

From 2008 Best of France

Dinner was at some random (and kind of touristy) Italian place near the Eiffel Tower. What can I say, we were tired and it was starting to rain. One thing we noticed while we were there, the French eat a lot of carbs (e.g. bagettes) but there aren't really many fat people around. Weird. I think it's more due to the small portions, which is something I'd like to adopt here at home.

We walked back to our hotel and saw lots of nicely dressed people. In France, it's definitely "fashion over function" as I was reminded when I saw a girl in a nice dress despite the freezing temperatures. In general, people just look well put together in Paris and it's a nice change from the logo'd t-shirt and jeans you see across suburban America.

Pretty much every night we returned to the hotel with sore feet. Walking is a big part of any vacation with us. And the next day, the walking would continue since the Louvre was on our list.

From 2008 Best of France

this is what i saw while driving to school yesterday

2008-10-17T18:38:00.001-07:00

Blogged via iPhone

living a stress free life

2008-10-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

I try my best to be as stress-free as possible. And I tend to read articles on the subject. This one by Leo at Zenhabits.net discusses 10 simple ways to live a less stressful life.

What caught my attention was the opening quote he used from George Burns:

“If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn’t ask me, I’d still have to say it.”

This is exactly the same advice I got from my Great Grandma Aker who is currently 104 years old. I think she and Mr. Burns are on to something (George Burns lived to be 100).

recap from france - part 4

2008-10-05T23:10:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe this is only part 4 of the France trip recap. I'll keep going until I lose energy or someone tells me it's boring.

From 2008 Best of France

The next day I ate sugar bread for breakfast at a new patisserie while Drew and Danielle had other sweets. We took a local train to the town of Arles and to our surprise there was a lot going on that day. There was a bullfight in the arena (coliseum) and a big carnival to go with it. What I found amazing about this is that the coliseum there was built in 90 A.D. to host sporting events. Almost 2000 years later, it's still being used for the exact same purpose. This wouldn't happen in the US, we "preserve" old, historical buildings -- meaning we stop using them. It's refreshing to see that this isn't the attitude in France.

From 2008 Best of France

I was lucky to get a good photo of this guy breathing fire just outside the coliseum near where we had lunch. We ate on the second floor and tt was sort of a weird place but the view from our table was awesome. I ate a croque madame which is just like the croque monsieur but with eggs (e.g. the "female" version because women have eggs).

From 2008 Best of France

Arles is a small town with tiny streets, even smaller than you'd normally find in most European cities. We strolled down to the old roman baths and the hospital where Van Gogh once stayed.

From 2008 Best of France

The bullfight was obviously a big deal and most of the folks there were locals -- not many were carrying the telltale camera of tourists. Far from the bullfight, the streets were abandoned and one building had this weird dungeon looking thing underneath it. There was apparently supposed to be a "running of the bulls" event and the streets were barricaded off. We tried to wait around but as it got later we were risking missing the last train. We did spot some crazy French gangsters in the crowd, the main guy looked like a 70 year old version of Jesus wearing a pinstriped suit.

I slept really well on this trip and got adjusted to the time zone quickly. The next day we had pastries again for breakfast and Danielle made friends with this girl at the tourism office who we later went to dinner with.

From 2008 Best of France

We stayed in Avignon that day and toured the Pont D'Avignon and the Pope's Palace. The bridge was dedicated to the patron saint of architecture. I didn't even know there was one! As usual, it continued to be really cold and we were freezing out on the bridge.

From 2008 Best of France

During the Pope's Palace tour I started thinking about the Masons, which if you saw the Da Vinci Code movie you are probably familiar with. It's interesting to think that this group had their hands in so much of history because they were the ones building the churches and cathedrals where everything happened. The Pope's Palace is a testament to their skill with it's enormous rooms and stone walls. Strangely though, the roof was made of wood, I guess the masons hadn't perfected stone roofs.

We spent the rest of the day just wandering around new sections of Avignon. We found one area with some really nice, expensive houses. Then we had dinner with our tourism office friend, Yuying (she was Asian but spoke French.) The waiter seemed to really enjoy our table because we had tons of questions and spoke to him in bad French. The rest of the restaurant was filled with Americans on some sort of tour (I think they booked the whole place) so he seemed happy to have at least one table speaking French.

Personally, I loved having a local at dinner because it gave me the chance to ask all sorts of questions that tourists normally don't find out. I get very curious on vacation and want to know what life is really like in a place. For example, do people have apartments, do they live with their parents until they're old, do they have state health care, do they save for retirement or does the state give them money, do they own cars, where do they buy their clothes and food....anyway, I find this stuff interesting. I learned that most French people buy a big baguette almost everyday on their way home from work to have for breakfast in the morning. So much for a low carb diet, and there are hardly any fat French people! The best was at the end of the night when Yuying asked us, "Do you have a blog, or Facebook?" What a sign of the times! Not what's your phone number or mailing address, or even email address....but specifically a blog or Facebook.

From 2008 Best of France

the new ferrari california

2008-10-03T18:39:00.000-07:00

I think I may have a new favorite Ferrari...and a new reason to continue working and saving money.

See the full video here.

recap from france - part 3

2008-09-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

(It's funny, as difficult as these France recap blog posts are to actually sit down and write, I'm getting a lot of enjoyment from re-living the trip)

We took the fast train (TGV) to Avignon. As usual, I was impressed with Europe's train system. You can get just about anywhere by train and on top of that it's relatively affordable, fast, and fun. But the TGV doesn't stop in downtown Avignon so we had to hop on a bus to get to the town center.

From 2008 Best of France

Pretty much everything was closed that day because it was Easter. And there were a ton of tourists. Avignon is an old, walled-city with plenty of the ancient walls still intact. A couple of highlights were the Pont D'Avignon bridge (or half of a bridge since that's all that remained) and the Palace of the Popes. Avignon was home to a second pope at one point in history.

From 2008 Best of France

As typical with most old European cities, the streets were tiny and it sort of felt like a movie set. Avignon definitely felt a lot more like Italy than Paris, perhaps due to the relationship with the catholic church.

We just sort of spent the first day wondering around town. In fact, at one point I think we wondered into a questionable area of town. It was weird because all the second stories of buildings appeared abandoned and boarded up. I'm not sure why people wouldn't live there...it's a beautiful city. We stumbled across some old mills and water wheels, which also appeared to have been abandoned for a long time.

From 2008 Best of France

I tried some new food in Avignon - the croque monsieur which is basically a ham an cheese sandwich and considered a staple of the French diet. I loved it! I'm ashamed to admit that after the long day of traveling by train and such, we ate McDonald's for dinner! But if you've never been to a MickeyDee's in Europe you have to go at least once. First, they are really nice, really clean, and some are quite fancy. Also, they serve beer -- Drew had to have some.

From 2008 Best of France

well, i started school

2008-09-29T21:26:00.000-07:00

I started the Santa Clara MBA program last week. I've been anticipating this for awhile and now that it's happening I've got mixed feelings about it.

Excitement
Anytime you do something new it's exciting. It's exciting because it's unknown. You don't know who you'll meet, what you'll learn, or the types of experiences you'll have. I've already met some great folks in the program and can't wait to meet more. It's also exciting because it gets me out of my daily routine. For lots of people, it's easy to get into the rut of daily life -- you wake up, go to work, work all day, go home, make dinner, maybe read/watch tv/surf the internet, go to bed and then do it all over again. It can get depressing. Even without going to school, think about the times you feel excited...they are usually because you're doing something out of the norm. Maybe you're meeting a friend for drinks after work, or going to a baseball game -- the point is that breaking up a routine makes for excitement.

Now my concern is that over the 3 years school it'll just become part of my routine. But for now, it's exciting.

Nervousness
I've mentioned this to a few people and was a little surprised at their reaction. I'm not nervous about the new environment, new people, or new experiences. This is the exciting stuff I described above. What I am nervous about though is how to maintain balance in my life. It's hard enough to do it between work and home but now I have to balance work, home, and school? Yikes! This is what I'm nervous about. It's already a constant struggle not to let work take over at home...but now school will need attention too. I'm sure it won't be easy and hopefully all those blogs I read like zenhabits.net, lifehacker.com, and lifehack.org will help me maintain my sanity.

last weekend of freedom

2008-09-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

This is my last weekend before I start the Santa Clara University MBA program. I'm excited and nervous about this new adventure. The nervousness isn't due to classes, meeting new people, or any of that but it's from worrying about how I'll balance school and work simultaneously. Loads of other people have done it, including Danielle, so I figure I'll manage.

You'd think I'd try to do something special on my last "free" weekend but all I wanted was to relax at home. Saturday we had a nice lunch on Burlingame Avenue and today nothing is planned. Hopefully I can blog a bit, do a couple errands, and just chill. I have a little work to catch up on since it's the end of the quarter but hopefully I can get that done in the morning before Danielle is awake.

more recap from france - part 2

2008-09-20T22:56:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I began posting a recap of our vacation in France. The long saga described in the blog post only actually covered two days so I'm following up with more info.

On day 3 we tried a new coffee place and ate crepes for breakfast on Rue Cler near our hotel. I discovered the "two egg crepe" which turned out to be one of my favorites. Since the weather wasn't looking great we thought it might be a good day to do some indoor activities near our hotel. We started at Hotel de Invalides which is where the injured soldiers went to recover.

Big tomb for a little guy - From 2008 Best of France

Afterward we went to Napoleon's tomb which is absolutely crazy. It's huge! The building is magnificent and Napoleon is located right in the center under the dome. He's surrounded by the tombs of his generals. Napoleon's actually enclosed in five coffins of different materials. (I can't remember them all, but I think wood, copper, iron, marble, and something else.) Seeing this spectacle makes one understand where the term "Napoleon complex" comes from. Damn, this guy thought he was pretty awesome to deserve such a tomb. But to be honest, I'd love that treatment when I die too.

From 2008 Best of France

We also saw a massive armory and so many suits of ancient armor in a sort of warehouse area that it made them seem not even that special. The guns of the 1600s caught my attention because most people don't think of firearms as being available until much later.

From 2008 Best of France

The next day we packed up our stuff and headed to the train station for our ride to Avignon. Just like almost every European city, Paris's metro system is amazing. It's easy to navigate, routes are clearly marked, transfers are denoted, and platforms are well labeled. We didn't have any trouble with the metro and it'd be nice if the US learned a few things from their system. BART and caltrain are a joke...I can't imagine how difficult they are for foreigners.

Train station in Paris

The train ride to Avignon was pretty un-eventful except for a crying baby in our car and snow outside as we increased (slightly) in elevation. We opted for the fast train which covered nearly the entire length of France in only 2.5 hours.

one reason nin concerts continue to impress

2008-09-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

Photo:Wired.com

I've always respected Trent Reznor as an innovator and this is a big reason why I like his music. He was recording albums using only a computer way back in 1990 (and probably before.) Today that's not so impressive, but seeing nine inch nails perform live is.

The visual effects from their Lights in the Sky tour are almost unbelievable. The most amazing part is that the visuals aren't pre-programmed. The effects literally listen to the music and watch the performers to react accordingly. It's a totally dynamic system and all done live. You wouldn't want the band lip syncing to pre-recorded music, right? So why have pre-recorded visual effects either? The musicians interact with the visual effects as if they were playing an additional instrument.

Wired.com's NIN article has a great description of the process, along with pictures and video of how they do this. The video is definitely worth spending 12 minutes watching, especially towards the end.

furnished condo pictures

2008-09-08T22:57:00.000-07:00

I've posted furnished condo pictures to our remodel gallery.

I'm having some monitor calibration troubles and these pictures looked really dark on my desktop. But when I checked them on my MacBook Pro (who's screen I trust much more) they looked ok. So let me know how they look for you.

Below are some of the pictures, but check the link above for more.

You'll probably notice that all the furniture is the same stuff we had at our old apartment. Although somehow it looks much nicer in our new place. I'll give credit to the hardwood floors for making it look better. Also, our one bedroom apartment felt a bit cramped with all this furniture but with more space we've now got a simpler, zen-like, clutter-free home. I love it and plan to avoid accumulating more stuff if I can help it.

We haven't hung any pictures or anything on the walls yet. And the guest bedroom is sort of our next project. I'd like to replace the desks with a matching 2-person T-shaped desk like Tom and Jeff have. A sofa sleeper would also be great in that room.

Master bedroom

Living room

Living room and dining room

Dining room

Kitchen

Sacrificed some cabinets for a pot rack

Guest bedroom/office

Patio

View from the patio of Burlingame's "Civic Center" with city hall and the library

recap from the france trip

2008-09-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

I should have learned my lesson by now. If I don't blog about something immediately, I end up forgetting what I wanted to blog about in the first place. And really, isn't that supposed to be the whole point of a blog? For current updates about what's happening? It seems sort of pointless to post a day-by-day account of my vacation months after it happened.

Anyway, I often keep a list of blog topics, so when something comes to mind I can add it to the list even if I don't have time to blog right then. On this list is "post a recap of the France vacation." This sounds great, but it's been so long ago I forget what I really wanted to say. Luckily, I kept a diary while I was there. These next few posts will be sort of a recap of events but I'll follow up with some general observations about France.

The photos probably speak for themselves, so check out our France vacation gallery on the new and improved Picasa. Sadly, these are not all 1500 pictures...only those we deemed the best.

The day we arrived was an adventure. Traveling to Europe always is, thanks to the long flight. You arrive groggy yet you still have to manage navigating a foreign airport and a new city while hauling your bags around before you get to the hotel. I hate traveling with my bags. When I get somewhere, the first thing I usually want to do is get to my hotel and put down my bags. Our first day in Paris we managed to get on the Rossy bus that took us downtown near the opera house. From there, we hopped on the metro to our hotel. But it got interesting when we were looking for the hotel. Danielle asked some guy in French but he wasn't sure. We weren't either. After walking around the block we found the place on a small street only about 100m from where we'd originally come out of the metro. I'll chalk that up to the grogginess.

Hotel Muguet

Even though I've never had any trouble with jet-lag, I didn't know how Drew and Danielle would do. So I tried to get them to use my anti-jet-lag trick: stay up as late as possible your first night in Europe. After checking in at the hotel we walked around the neighbor and to the Eiffel Tower which wasn't far. We grabbed a bite to eat but crashed around 8pm. Not bad! We also found time to buy postcards our first day.

We started the new morning with a trip to the post office, which operated like a well-oiled machine. I couldn't believe how organized it was. Pastries and coffee followed shortly after and then we began a long trek to the train station where we picked up our ticket to Avignon. Danielle did an amazing job speaking French with the ticket agent! We also walked past the catacombs, which I was disappointed to see closed for renovations.

Re-reading my diary, we were crazy! I can't believe how much stuff we packed into each day. On the same day described above we also went to: Click each link for a photo

Luxembourg Gardens

Rue Muffetard - where we ate at best creperie in town according to Drew's friend who used to live in Paris, it's called 'Le Petit Grec'

Saw a Good Friday parade

Pantheon - did you know this was a warehouse for holy relics? Also hanging in the center is a pendulum that shows the earth spinning. Be sure to check out the fancy crypt too!

Saint Etienne Du Monte - a cool church featured in the Da Vinci Code

Notre Dame - this was packed due to it being Good Friday, but it was free that day!

Deportation Memorial

St. Chappelle (was closed)

St. Louis de L'ile - we saw some cool folks playing music on the bridge and lots of people eating ice cream even though it was freezing out

Sounds like a lot huh? It was! In fact we walked 10 miles that day.

The walk home was interesting. We stopped for a cheap dinner at Subway and saw a very happening night-life in the St. Germain part of town. There were lots of police guarding a bunch of different buildings on Rue De Varenne, but not sure what. Randomly, some girl asked Danielle for directions (she must look French)...little did she know it was our first day in town!

To be continued...

waiting for nin to come on stage

2008-09-05T20:36:00.000-07:00

yes, not having tv makes me weird

2008-09-04T22:41:00.000-07:00

This topic came up again today as I ate lunch with a new co-worker. It tends to come up fairly often because people will ask "Hey did you see [insert show] last night?" To which I always reply, "So, I'm a little weird...I don't have TV." The response is almost universal -- a look of amazement comes over their face and they utter the word, "What?!"

At that point I usually clarify that I do have TV, in fact, our 50" plasma is probably ridiculous considering that we don't get any channels. Then I go on to explain how we watch a fair number of DVDs, wait for whole seasons to come out on DVD, and for the one or two shows we really love (e.g. Lost, 24), we'll watch them online.

But people usually end up asking why we don't have TV and until now I hadn't thought about it much. The truth is that it's a combination of things.

1. We don't have time. I don't know how people find the time to watch as much TV as they do. I guess we watch a movie or two per week and each movie is usually about 2 hours so maybe we spend the same amount of time that way?

2. We weren't watching enough TV to justify the cost. Even when we had cable (5 years ago) we'd still basically just watch a couple shows per week. It seemed sort of silly to spend $65 a month for that, especially with what's available on the internet these days.

3. We like life (and the lifestyle) without a TV. Since getting rid of TV I read more and I talk to my wife more. We eat about 95% of our meals together sitting at the dining room table and talking to each other. We spend time doing other stuff, like walking downtown or sitting on the patio having a beer (or glass of wine.) A lot of the activities boil down to interacting with each other more.

4. When we did watch, we watched junk. It's so easy to flip on the TV and just plop down in front of whatever happens to be on. It might not even be something interesting. Hours later, I'd think..."Geeez, where did the day go?" and it'd be time for bed. Usually there were other things I would have rather been doing. I never owned a Tivo but I imagine it would eliminate some of this.

5. Every viewing experience is great. Since we only watch DVDs (primarily movies), the experience of watching something is excellent all the time. The picture is high quality and widescreen, the sound is surround sound, and there are no commercials.

One downside though is that you have to make more of an effort to read about current events. We don't get a newspaper either (I don't think this is so weird these days) so I need to seek out information on the internet about what's happening in the world.

Surprisingly, Danielle and I have met more and more people lately who also gave up TV. I think three of the five people in one of her MBA groups didn't have TV. So maybe we're not that weird after all?

photos of the completed condo

2008-09-01T17:31:00.001-07:00

I'm ashamed I haven't posted pictures of the finished condo yet. I took some, I guess I just forgot to upload them. I also forgot to take photos once the furniture was all setup (I blame this on rushing to get things set up for our mini-housewarming party.) I can't take pictures of the place now because it's a mess. But we'll clean soon and then you can see photos of our furnished, finished condo.

Until then, here are some shots of the completed project without any of our stuff yet. Click here for the full condo remodel gallery (these are basically in sequential order so go to the pics just before moving.)

Click here if you want to see some before photos.

Living room

We went with the bamboo floors throughout the whole place. Though we still need some window blinds for the sliding door. I'm thinking plantation style to match the other windows.

Living room and dining room with huge mirror

Danielle had to convince me to keep the mirror. Now I like it and it makes the room feel huge.

Even though I can't cook much, the kitchen is my favorite part of the project

The wood floor was a tough choice in the kitchen since it gets a lot of abuse there. One night Danielle dropped a knife and it landed straight down (tip in the wood floor!) This is the first time I've had a fridge with ice and water in the door -- I love it.

Guest bath - I've since replaced the toilet seat with a nicer one, this is also before the mirror was installed

Guest bedroom

The bookshelves and bench were already there so we kept them. They're proving to be really useful already.

Master bathroom - also before mirror installation

This is leftover granite from the kitchen counters. We also had enough to do some shelves in the bathroom too (not shown.)

Master bedroom

We'll see how the baseboard heaters are in the winter. We had them at our old place and they weren't bad. It's sort of nice being able to heat rooms individually rather than the whole place (heat the rooms you're using.)

I'm looking forward to using the fireplace in the master bedroom

The fireplaces all have gas lines, but the gas to the building is shut off so they're really wood-burning only. Thank god for duraflame logs.

Long hallway back to the bedrooms

This hallway helped us decide which direction to lay the bamboo floors. The floors are the same throughout which turned out great since there are no seams. In fact, from one end of the hall (near the master bath door) all the way through the kitchen is one straight board-line. We also kept the same direction for the bend in the hall that you can see at the top of this photo. The master bedroom is an odd shape so it contrasts nicely with the straight lines of the floor and gives some character.

anniversary dinner on the sherman

2008-08-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

Last night Danielle and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary.

Despite a co-worker's poor experience, we decided to give this restaurant, The Sherman, a try. It's right here in Burlingame and it's a boat (ship I guess.) My colleague at work said the service was terrible but the food was OK, so I went into it with pretty low expectations.

I left surprisingly impressed. Maybe because it was a Thursday night they weren't so busy but the service was top notch. Our waitress was friendly and attentive. All the other staff was also helpful. I'd rate the food as "very good". I ordered filet mignon and Danielle had halibut. The best part was the experience and view, especially because we timed it perfectly for sunset.

We'd seen the boat about 2 or 3 years ago while walking along the bay. It was parked in a tiny canal being restored but we had no idea why it was there. Then it opened as a restaurant not long after. Being there last night got me interested in the boat's history because it's sort of an odd sight in Burlingame and especially in this little canal. (Plus I love reading about local history and I like boats.)

So I did some digging and found this Wikipedia entry about The Sherman aka The General Frank M. Coxe.

It turns out the boat has all kinds of neat history. It was built in 1921 in West Virginia as an Army transport ship. But in 1947 it was sold as "surplus" and used for transportation in the San Francisco Bay. After that it made it's way out to Stockton and Jack London Square before winding up in a shallow, un-used canal in Burlingame.

I have no idea whether it still moves under it's own power or not. It's currently docked as a restaurant, not a dinner cruise ship.

we have too much stuff

2008-08-27T23:24:00.000-07:00

I realized I hadn't posted pictures of our actual move. (We've been living here for a month now!) Even though we only moved a block, we hired movers and I was glad we did. Our old apartment had three flights of stairs and no elevator. This wasn't so bad when we moved in there five years ago, but we've since accumulated a lot more stuff.

Honestly, I couldn't believe the strength of these three movers. And they weren't big guys either, they are about my size. Seeing a guy carry a fully loaded chest of six drawers on his back down the stairs is impressive. They certainly earned their money.

Moving all our "stuff" forced me to realize a few things:

1. Moving isn't fun, even when someone else is doing it. The packing and prep is a lot of work too.

2. Movers know what they're doing. In the past when we had moved ourselves, stuff inevitably got broken, dinged, scratched, or whatever. It's the stuff you always worry about when hiring movers but the truth is you are more likely to screw up your own furniture taking it down the hall because you aren't a professional mover.

3. Our new condo is big. Despite having what I'm starting to consider "too much crap", luckily the new condo is big enough that even with all the crap, it still looks somewhat empty. Not "empty" really, but simple, uncluttered, and very zen-like. This is exactly how I like it.

4. We do have too much "crap". We made a few trips to GoodWill both before and after the move. It feels great to get rid of stuff we never use. My new rule for clothes is, "Have I worn this in the past year?" If no, out it goes. We had way too much other stuff too and it was nice to purge things. I think there is more purging to be done because there are at least six boxes still packed and so far I haven't needed anything out of them.

5. Unpacking is just as hard. I'm a freak for organization and efficiency. (I think this is why we were able to fit so much stuff into a one-bedroom apartment.) So I couldn't just unpack things, I needed to make sure they were put away in the optimal spot. Coffee cups needed to go in a cabinet near the coffee maker, cooking utensils should be in drawers by the stove, you get the picture. I think just unpacking the kitchen alone took days, but the end result is worth it. I feel like we made great use of the space and things are exactly where I expect them to be.

6. Unpacking takes awhile. As I mentioned, we still have a handful of boxes sitting around. It takes time to get fully situated in a new place and I finally feel like we finally are.

7. Your stuff makes it feel like home. Prior to moving, we'd come over to the condo to check the remodeling progress, but it never felt quite right. I mean, it looked great but it didn't feel like home until our furniture and things were there. The sad part is, this really bothers me. I wish I weren't so attached to my stuff. Ultimately, I know I could live without any of it but I do like it. It reminds me of a quote from the movie Fight Club, "The things you own end up owning you."

8. Decorating is harder than moving. We still have almost nothing on the walls. I tend to like this uncluttered look but I know I'll need to compromise with Danielle and hang some stuff. (Plus it echoes loudly with the hardwood floor and bare walls.) This will be an ongoing, evolving project over the next year.

it really is a small world afterall

2008-08-24T22:39:00.000-07:00

The past week, I've been selling a boatload of old Ducati parts on Ebay. As all of you know, I sold my bike a few months ago but I had some leftover parts. Craigslist wasn't working, so I put them on Ebay to try to make a little cash and clear out the garage at the same time.

One guy bought my stock airbox. He was local so we made arrangements for him to come pick it up in person. After he arrived, we were chatting a bit and talking about our bikes and I tell him how I sold my 748 a few months ago. Sort of out-of-the-blue he asks, "Did you sell it to this guy Dennis Something-or-other?" I didn't know what to say...or what this guy was getting at. I sort of paused then said "Yes?"

Turns out Dennis didn't keep my bike very long. He sold it to this other guy, who happened to be in my garage right now. He was curious about the history of the bike so I filled him in on why it had such low miles and about the accident.

But as if that weren't strange enough, another guy came by tonight to pick up some other stuff. We're talking about bikes (of course) and he goes "Wait a minute, didn't you have a 748 for sale a few months ago that had an unusual white rear wheel? I called you to try to buy it but it was already gone."

Weird! We think we live in this enormous and anonymous world, but if today's any indication, it's makes me wonder. I guess at least it's fair to say the Ducati community is small.

2008 gumball rally in san francisco (with david hasselhoff!)

2008-08-14T23:28:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was fun. I don't say that lightly either, especially because prior to that, most weekends had been work. Specifically, work on finishing up the little details with the condo and unpacking/organizing everything. So the fact that I got to go to the Gumball Rally and have a housewarming party was a welcome relief.

If you're not familiar with it, the Gumball Rally is a street "race" (well, rally) inspired by folks like Broc Yates and movies like The Cannonball Run and The Gumball Rally. This version of it started 10 years ago and has become more extravagant each year. It's a rich man's adventure that's more about the journey than who finishes first. This year they're racing from San Francisco to Beijing for the Olympics with a stop-over in North Korea. They've chartered jumbo jets to ship all the cars overseas. Each night they host outrageous parties. And then need to drive hundreds of miles the next day (often with hangovers.) The cost for all this fun? A cool 60,000 pounds or about US$120,000. At least they include tickets to the Olympics!

The only thing the entry fee doesn't include is your speeding tickets, and folks tend to get a lot of them. I believe a guy in a Ferrari F50 got over 30 tickets during the 7 day period before being thrown in jail a couple years ago.

This is something I must do before I die. If anyone reading this is looking for a co-driver or wants to sponsor me, leave a message in the comments.

Here are some pictures and videos by brother and I took at the event:

Vince's Gumball 2008 Pictures - Picasa
Drew's Gumball 2008 Pictures - SmugMug

my dublin photos

2008-08-12T22:29:00.000-07:00

As it turned out, I did get sick and ended up spending three days home from work last week. But I'm feeling better now and was in good enough shape to host a little housewarming party on Sunday.

I've been meaning to get my Dublin photos uploaded and finally got around to doing that tonight. Take a look at my Picasa web album using the link below. I tried to add some descriptive captions so you know what you're looking at. Feel free to leave comments on the photos.

2008 Dublin Trip Gallery

A couple of other topics I hadn't covered in my previous blog posts:

General lack of fat people - Normally when you're in Europe, especially countries like Italy, Spain, and France, you hardly see any fat people. This is very different from the United States (though if you live on either coast you may be biased to seeing more thin people.) In general, folks weren't overweight in Dublin though there were more fat people than in the rest of Europe.

My hotel was nice - My hotel was very, very nice and the service was great. It was definitely a high roller type of hotel and I enjoyed staying there. In fact, yesterday I got a letter in the mail from the hotel manager thanking me for completing their survey and giving them such high marks.

Lots of Spaniards and Americans - Perhaps it was just the tourist season but walking around town I heard lots of Spanish and "American English" being spoken. Dublin seems like a place where a lot of people from all over go for work.

Howth - As you can see in the pictures, I spent an afternoon in the seaside town of Howth. It's a small town about 30 minutes outside of Dublin. The weather was beautiful so it was packed the day I was there.

"Mixed use" is the norm - As part of my Burlingame CAC duties, we've been talking about how to incorporate "mixed use" zoning into our town. That typically means commercial or retail uses on the first floor of a building with apartments or condos above. Mixed use is sort of the "hip new thing" in lots of urban and semi-urban areas of the US but what I realized in Dublin is that it's not new at all. Mixed use is the normal state of things in these European cities which have been around for hundreds of years. The separation we have in the states between commercial and residential zoning (and as a by-product, suburbs) is the part that is un-natural and odd. Mixed use has been around forever.

back home and coming down with something?

2008-08-02T21:55:00.000-07:00

I got home from Ireland Thursday after a long flight which ended with a lost bag. They found the bag and delivered it Friday so no big deal. The worst part is that today (Saturday) I've got a gnarly sore throat. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the trip but I always tend to blame airplanes for getting me sick.

In all likelihood though, it was probably the fact that on my last night in Dublin I stayed out until 2:30am, woke at 4:30am to catch my flight, and then proceeded to breathe recycled airplane air for 12 hours in that weakened state. Ugh.

some more ireland observations

2008-07-29T15:13:00.001-07:00

Christchurch Cathedral in Dublin

Here are a few more cultural and environmental differences I noticed in Ireland. This is a random list and definitely not exhaustive but I've been trying to jot down a note every time I notice something. And I've thrown in a couple of other photos too since I can't share the full album until I get home.

Stays light late - I haven't looked up how far north Dublin actually is but I have noticed that it stays light very late into the night. Even at about 10pm it's still not dark. I really like this because it makes the evenings feel more usable. I can get home from work (even late at like 7pm) and still have three solid hours of daylight left.

Building have no numbers - This is really odd but the building don't have any street numbers. Like you can't say "I live at 1234 Grafton Street" because there are no numbers! Instead, everything is called by a house (building) name - so it's like Fitzwilliam House, Gordon House, etc on a particular street. For example, your address might be Davey House, Dame Road, Dublin 2, Ireland. Very strange. The other thing about this is that streets change names almost every block! So Dame Road might actually only be one block and then change to Merrion Road. And there are no zip codes. Just Dublin 1, Dublin 2, Dublin 3...out to Dublin 25 which I'm told is really the suburbs.

Expressions they use - Irish people (at least one of my co-workers) use some unique expressions that I sort of like (so if I start saying this stuff at home, I'm sorry.) One phrase is "savage." This is meant to be the same as "cool," or "awesome," or "good." Like you might say "That band is savage" meaning "That band is awesome." Another one I like is "proper" which means "correct" and "good." They way it's been used seems to be related to food like "For a proper steak, go to XYZ place" or "For a really, proper, proper Guinness you have to go to XYZ pub."

Scales in stones - Yes, I realize I am just being a dumb American with this one but my bathroom scale has two units of measure on it. One is in kilograms, which is semi-normal enough but the other is in "stones." Apparently I weigh 10 stones (62 kg.)

Temperature doesn't change much at night - This is nice. For example, if it's about 70F out during the day and you can wear a short sleeved shirt, there's no need to bring a jacket if you go out at night. Unlike the Bay Area, it doesn't get considerably colder at night. It cools off, but not so much that you need to plan ahead with different clothes. Definitely bring an umbrella though. I learned this the hard way last night when I had to walk (jog) home about 8 blocks in the rain!

Coke tastes different - We've got canned Coke at work and it tastes different than in the States. I think this is because they use proper sugar in the formula rather than corn syrup but I could be wrong.

People sleep in on Sundays - I went out for breakfast on Sunday morning at around 9am and to my horror I couldn't find anyplace open! I guess the Irish are not morning people, at least on Sundays. (Luckily I found a crepe place that was serving coffee and started serving crepes at 10am.)

I may come up with a couple more before the end of the trip so stay tuned.

Also, I'm not looking forward to my 6:45am flight on Thursday morning. This means I need to leave the hotel around 4:45 and get up before that. Oh well, at least I get into San Francisco at a reasonable time.

I saw this wedding party in the park and had to take a photo of the groomsmen wearing top hats and coats with long tails

guinness and heinz

2008-07-29T10:36:00.000-07:00

My parents are both from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the home of the famous Heinz ketchup. But honestly, I had no idea how many other products Heinz made and how common they are outside of the US. Sure, I've had the ketchup and mustard but not the malt vinegar, mayo, or "brown sauce"...whatever that is.

Talk about some strong branding! All the packets have a similar style.

I think it's interesting when a city is so closely associated with a major corporation, especially one that produces consumer products. For Pittsburgh, it's Heinz and here in Dublin it's Guinness. Both have a lot of similarities and the companies and cities benefit from each other in lots of ways. I liked seeing how a large part of Dublin developed around the Guinness factory. They even had company-owned housing for the employees. Although the steel industry really put Pittsburgh on the map, I'm sure Heinz played and still plays a pretty big role in the town.

Oh, on a related note -- I am drinking more beer here than I have in the past 7 months! I rarely drink beer at home but when you're in Ireland you literally can't avoid it.

That's my random observation for the day.

the jameson distillery

2008-07-29T10:31:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple pictures by request for Drew. Sadly, the Jameson Distillery was closed by the time I arrived. They seem to have tours of the old factory and their own restaurant.

it pays to plan for the future

2008-07-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

I went on a tour of the Guinness Storehouse at St. James Gate on Saturday. This is the original site of the Guinness beer factory and they've got quite an educational tour going on there. I'd recommend it if you're in town. (Plus there are free samples and a free pint at the end!)

The Guinness Storehouse

I learned all sorts of neat facts about the company but one particularly interesting one was that Arthur Guinness, the founder, signed a 9000 year lease for the property the factory is sitting on! Think about that for a minute, 2000 years ago was the birth of Christ. This is over 4 times longer than that. Talk about planning ahead! Guinness is currently only 250 years into their lease.

The 9000 year lease is on display under glass in the center of the floor. It's central to the tour as I'm sure it was a key piece in the success of this company.

Oh, and the best part is that it's "rent-controlled". They still only pay 45 british pounds per year. That's about US$100 for 64 acres.

I think I should invest in more commercial real estate, especially in the current market.

The safe where they kept a reserve supply of yeast

Many different styles of Guinness bottles

Getting a free pint in the Gravity Bar at the top of the building

The view of the surrounding factory from above

iphoto sucks

2008-07-27T15:57:00.000-07:00

iPhoto is by far the worst image organizing software I've ever used. It won't let you add captions to photos for one. (The fact that it copies duplicates of all your photos into /pictures/iphoto/library/2008/whatever is also garbage.)

I love to add captions to photos so that I remember what they're of, especially years later. I could do this directly on the web version of Picasa but then the captions won't get appended to originals (the captions would only be on the website.)

This means that I won't be uploading my photos until I get home. I'll still post a handful to the blog but the complete set will have to wait. Sorry!

Here is one of the O'Connell Street Bridge in downtown Dublin.

today's walk...only 6 miles

2008-07-27T10:58:00.000-07:00

Today I took a 30 minute train ride on the DART (yes, that stands for Dublin Area Rapid Transit...sound familiar?) out to a little seaside fishing town called Howth. Although my walk was only 6 miles today, much of it was vertical as there were some trails along the cliffs by the water. Below is the map of my walk (luckily the piers were flat!), a picture from atop the cliff, and a house with a great view.

dublin trip observations #2 - work

2008-07-27T03:13:00.000-07:00

I've got a lot of small topics that I want to blog about so I'll start with work stuff. (I'm wishing now that I had my computer when we were in France because I still have yet to blog about all my observations of French culture.) Anyway, here are some things I've noticed while working in Dublin. These are broad generalizations based on what I've seen.

People dress nicely - Typically, people are dressed much nicer for work than in the States. This could be biased given the area I'm staying in (which is a nice part of the city near some government buildings.) Perhaps if I were working on downtown SF it'd be similar. But overall, both guys and girls appear to make more of an effort to look good for work. The guys are typically in nice European cut suits and the girls wear attractive skirts and blouses or skirt-suits. Note: this rule does not apply at my office, where most people wear jeans.

Less meetings - My counterparts here in Dublin have a lot less meetings than I normally do. I don't know if this is due to the culture or the time difference to Mountain View. Certainly they are unable to attend the meetings with MV team members due to the time difference but even within their office they seem to have far fewer meetings. (I know because I've been stalking their calendars looking to sit-in on interesting meetings.) This is both a blessing and a curse. Less meetings makes them more productive and get more actual work done. But of course it also makes it difficult to get things resolved since sometimes it takes many emails back and forth. At home, it's not uncommon for me to spend 4-6 hours per day in meetings, leaving maybe 2 hours (of a regular 8 hr workday, haha) to do work. Here it seems to be the inverse.

Walking to work - This is a small thing but it feels amazingly good. I've been lucky though that I haven't had to walk to work in the rain so I'm sure my opinion could change. But not having to commute (either by car or shuttle) is great. It feels refreshing to get outside and walk in the morning. And then in the evening it gives me 20 minutes of quiet time to relax and unwind from a day at work. I wish I had this luxury at home.

Crossing the street - Speaking of walking to work, I luckily haven't been hit by any cars yet. They must get a lot of foreigners in Dublin because painted on the ground at the crosswalks is "Look left" or "Look right" reminding people that they drive on the other side of the street here.

Different "flow" to the day - When you've got an 8 hour time difference to the home office, the flow of your workday is much different. In fact, it's sort of nice from a traveler's perspective. I get into the office and have all these emails from folks back home. But they're all asleep so I can respond to all them without instantly getting more email follow-ups. Once those emails are sent, I can spend the majority of the day doing "work" (I usually don't consider email "work" but a tool to get work done.) Then in the afternoon I have about two hours of overlapping time with Mountain View for some video conference meetings. After that, it's time to leave just as things are getting started back home. It's sort of a nice change of pace from what I'm used to.

No cubicles - This may only be our company, but nobody has cubicles. Some managers have offices but for the most part people sit at long rows of desks with no dividers. I'm sure this promotes collaboration but I think it would drive me nuts after a couple months.

That's about it for work stuff so far. There are lots of other little things about being in an international office, like the multitude of languages spoken, but these are the things I found most interesting so far.

PS. I'll post some more pictures tonight but I'm off to Howth now.

my 7 mile walk

2008-07-26T14:06:00.000-07:00

I'm beat. Seriously, my feet are killing me. It didn't help that I got lost for a little bit today (see lower left corner of map) and did a bunch of extra walking. And this didn't count all the walking I did inside the Guinness Storehouse (factory). Though 7 miles is still weak compared to the 11 miles we did in one day on the France trip.

Now, I'm back at the hotel relaxing and blogging. I'm debating if a quick shower will give me the energy to go back out. After all, it's Saturday night and it'd be fun to see what the nightlife is like in Dublin.

dublin trip observations - different from my ducati trips

2008-07-26T03:30:00.000-07:00

I'm enjoying my trip to Ireland, especially because it's someplace I've never been. Since leaving my job at Ducati, I haven't traveled much for work which is both good and bad. I love my life at home and wouldn't trade it for anything but I also like the adventure of landing somewhere new, finding my way to the hotel and office, and getting acquainted with a new city and new culture. Plus, I love Europe and all the little things about the European lifestyle. Regularly returning to places is also fun. I know when I used to go to the Ducati factory in Bologna it started to feel really comfortable and I got into a regular routine.

One thing that's much different from my travels for Ducati is that most of those trips were press functions. My main job was to wine and dine the American journalists and make sure none of them ended up in a foreign jail. So the dynamic was much different then. We were all together and it was great having a group of fun guys to go do stuff with even when we weren't "working." If we went to lunch, or to a museum, we had a group.

This trip is much different because I'm on my own. Actually, the folks at the office are great (they've been super helpful and given lots of good recommendations on things to do, places to eat) and I've gone out for some beers with them but now it's the weekend and I'm looking forward to exploring Dublin on my own. I'm not saying one is any better than the other (though it does still feel a little awkward walking into a restaurant and getting a table for one) but it's just different.

I haven't taken many photos yet as I've mostly been working but here are a couple to give you a little sense of what it's like.

Nice British car (Aston Martin) in front of a typically British looking building

Front of my hotel, which looks small but is huge and extremely nice

Some government(?) building right across from my hotel

in dublin, but not dublin california

2008-07-24T15:57:00.000-07:00

I'm currently in Dublin, Ireland on business. I got in on Tuesday evening and am nicely settled in at my hotel (http://www.merrionhotel.com/. The place is swanky and very British feeling (even though I'm sure the Irish would hate me saying that.)

I'll try to do some blogging while I'm here so check back soon. I'll be here until July 31st so hopefully I'll have some interesting insights about Ireland to write about.

Drew - there is an old Jameson Distillery in town here on the map. I'll try to get some pictures for you. I seem to remember you drink that stuff.

and all that could have been

a video i made -- monterey auto week

thanks steve

my danville concours d'elegance experience and pictures are on egarage.com

pebble beach concours weekend without the pebble part

Turkey Photo Gallery

Day 12 - Tourism in Ankara

Day 11 - Stopping by the US Embassy

Day 10 - Off to Ankara

Day 9 - Duzce University

Istanbul Day 8 - Back to work

Day 7 - Prince's Islands

Istanbul Day 6 - Sight Seeing

Istanbul Day 5 - Bosphorus Dinner Cruise

Istanbul Day 4

Day 3 - Rural Turkey

Istanbul Day 2 - Sabanci University

Istanbul Day 1

MBA trip to Istanbul

burlingame downtown specific area plan and what i did

i've jumped on the twitter bandwagon

proof that californians can't drive in the rain

back to school

boating with keith and bill

my weekend at the pebble beach concours d'elegance

follow up on work-life balance

having a good work-life balance has nothing to do with your job

segmentation of people by work habits

my neighbor - the library

passive versus active computer usage

welcome little luca!

filling my time

pictures from the nine inch nails concert friday

more on time, money, and ownership

missing out on life?

the world today

one more picture from mothers day

(almost) mother's day

marketing is really the study of stereotypes

the best option for sharing photos online?

trent reznor continues to innovate

quick blog check-in from healdsburg

the beginning of our stay-cation

the facebook fallacy

a glimpse of a geeky future

some good lessons from a facebook veteran

keeping in touch with friends

a new computer

thoughts on google latitude and other location aware services

michael masnick the trent reznor case study

burlingame avenue feeling the economic crisis

new baby, new furniture (for the parents!)

vinny's guide to buying a car

enjoying the simple things in life

nine inch nails leading radical changes in the music industry by distributing concert video for free

democratizing creativity

babies

on vacation

excitement in burlingame

nine inch nails in sacramento

my first quarter of school is done!

is facebook good for networking?

go experience something

do you have the time?

i wish i could drive like this guy

new dodge challenger spotted in burlingame ca

please ignore the "yes on prop 8" ads on my site

time...our most valuable commodity

do i need an information diet?

re-living france - part 5

this is what i saw while driving to school yesterday

living a stress free life

recap from france - part 4

the new ferrari california

recap from france - part 3

well, i started school

last weekend of freedom

more recap from france - part 2

one reason nin concerts continue to impress

*furnished* condo pictures

furnished condo pictures