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Home Again, Cold Again

Napa Valley

I just rolled back into the Cinci late this afternoon, which was shortly followed by a three-hour nap. Already, I miss the perfect weather, rolling hills, and emerald landscape of northern California. On Saturday night, Rahul and I went to visit Cathie in Napa Valley. Cathie is the link between the two of us being Rahul’s mother-in-law and one of my mom’s closest friends. That and Cathie’s daughter, Rahul’s wife, Sarah, used to baby-sit me.

Napa Valley was absolutely gorgeous. For a gift two years ago, my mom bought my dad a hot air balloon ride over the Valley at dawn. I had no clue how beautiful it was until I was able to see the untouched beauty of the vineyards for myself. Cathie, Rahul, and I drove around most of the loop inside the Valley and ended up doing a wine tasting at a local vineyard. Once it got too dark to enjoy the scenery, we ended up eating at a wonderful Mexican restaurant who’s name I cannot remember.

Yesterday, we had to drive Rahul down to the Bay Area for his flight the next morning. The journey there was absolutely breath taking. James tells me that the two hour drive is a twice daily commute for God-awful hordes of people every morning who either cannot afford to live in the Bay Area or choose not to live there. But for a newbie like me straight outta the plains of Nebraska, it was an incredible trip.

And the most geeky part: I got to drive through my first wind farm.

San Francisco Wind Farm

Well, goodbye California. Goodbye 70 degree sunny weather. Goodbye leaving the windows open and wearing summer clothes. Hello Cincinnati.

Sony BRAVIA Advert

Super Balls

What do you get when you drop 250,000 bouncy balls down a San Francisco hill? A wicked awesome viral from Sony.

Today’s eye candy semi-weekly (whenever I feel like changing it) video is an amazing commercial Sony made for their BRAVIA. Over three days, they kept tossing hundreds of thousands of bouncy balls down a hill and capturing the event from dozens of angles. Check out the official site. If you cannot view QuickTime movies, you can watch the viral on Google video.

Then check out the making of the commercial on Google video. I love the riot gear they use to protect the camera man. Someone on site took lots of wonderful pictures you can see on Flickr.

Cheney Shoots 78 Year Old with Shotgun

Dick Cheney Hunting Rifle

Things are not looking so good for Cheney these days. On the heels of Scooter Libby’s testimony that he authorized the Valerie Plame leak, he ends up spraying a 78 year old lawyer with shotgun pellets on a hunting trip. Official details are yet to be released, but the article has an interview with the owner of the land where the gentleman was shot.

After spending this last week in California working non-stop on our company, Rahul said, “I cannot believe that the Vice President of our country has more free time than we have.”

Amen.

141 Program Cuts

Bush Budget Cuts

I got this from J-Luv this morning:

The ellusive cuts to 141 programs in Bush’s budget were finally digested and publish late yesterday. If would be unfair to say that they are being cut in order to increase the defense budget and free up “emergency funds” for wars in Afgan. and Iraq…….. if it weren’t for the fact that its true. See if you can find your program here on the list! Notice all the cuts to education…. b/c children need to start taking PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for not getting left behind. It’s the American way.

Program Bush Wants to Cut or Kill

Interestingly enough, the majority of these cuts were in his budget proposals the last couple years, and they have been salvaged time and time again (like Head Start and Americorps NCCC, for example). But a very different political climate and increased pressure to eliminate
Congressmembers’ “pet projects” could make the approval and ammending interesting.

This sucks.

70 Degrees

Blue Sun

70 degrees and sunny. That’s the weather here in Elk Grove, California.

And it’s wonderful. When I left Cincinnati yesterday at 4am, it was snowing. James, Rahul, and I are having our DispatchThis family retreat this week, discussing the future of our company. So far it’s been good. Christie, James’ wife, made a wonderful black bean burrito dinner last night. We moved another one of our customers over to the new system today. James and Rahul got up at 3:30am to be on site when it happened and left me at home for damage control, which meant that I slept next to my phone until 9am.

Today, we are going to check out one of our largest customers and get to walk around some of their job sites in this absolutely ridiculously wicked awesome weather.

Check out my temp here.

Balls of Mud That Shine

Ball of Mud that Shines

Apparently, the latest craze to hit Japan’s shores is hikaru dorodango, balls of mud that shine. A few years ago, a Japanese educational theorist, Fumia Kayo, came across the strange objects while researching children’s play at a nursery school in Kyoto. Impressed with the design and with a little help from an electron microscope, he devised a method so simple that even children could do it. And they have! All over Japan kids are spending hour making dirt balls that shine. Here are his simple instructions:

1. Pack some mud into your hand, and squeeze out the water while forming a sphere.
2. Add some dry dirt to the outside and continue to gently shape the mud into a sphere.
3. When the mass dries, pack it solid with your hands, and rub the surface until a smooth film begins to appear.
4. Rub your hands against the ground, patting and rubbing the fine, powdery dirt onto the sphere. Continue this for two hours.
5. Seal the ball in a plastic bag for three or four hours. Upon removing the sphere, repeat step 4, and then once again seal the sphere in a plastic bag.
6. Remove the ball from the bag, and if it is no longer wet, polish it with a cloth until it shines.

Chief Republican Who Oversees NSA Calls For Wiretap Inquiry

Heather Wilson

Even after Gonzalez spent all day Monday defending Bush’s illegal wiretap program, more and more conservatives continue to break rank and call for a special investigator. The latest republican to jump ship is no regular congressperson. House Representative Heath Wilson (R-NM) is chairwoman of the committee that oversees all the NSA programs. Yesterday, she called for a full congressional inquiry into Bush’s eavesdropping program. From the NYTimes:

The lawmaker, Representative Heather A. Wilson of New Mexico, chairwoman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, said in an interview that she had “serious concerns” about the surveillance program. By withholding information about its operations from many lawmakers, she said, the administration has deepened her apprehension about whom the agency is monitoring and why.

Ms. Wilson, who was a National Security Council aide in the administration of President Bush’s father, is the first Republican on either the House’s Intelligence Committee or the Senate’s to call for a full Congressional investigation into the program, in which the N.S.A. has been eavesdropping without warrants on the international communications of people inside the United States believed to have links with terrorists.

And the same day Cheney said in an interview with Lehrer that members of congress can question or suggest whatever they want, but “we have all the legal authority we need.” No, Dick. No, you don’t. And even your own people won’t stay quiet about it.

Always Tie Your Shoelaces

Qing Vases

A few weeks ago, a regular visitor to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge tripped on his shoelace and fell down a staircase, breaking three priceless Qing Dynasty vases in the process. Dating from the 17th or 18th Century, the 1948 donations to the museum were among its most well known artifacts. The museum’s assistant director, Margaret Greeves, said, “They are in very, very small pieces, but we are determined to put them back together.”

It turns out that the visitor was Nick Flynn and was luckily unharmed in the accident. Glad Flynn was uninjured and knowing he could never pay for the vases, the museum has asked that he not “visit the museum again in the near future.”

Listen to your mother. Always tie your shoelaces.

Evangelicals Call For Action On Global Warming

Cross and Earth

It looks like Bush might even be losing some of his religious right these days. A group of 85 evangelical Christian leaders are supporting a bill that would curb America’s emissions of green house gases. The article pulls a great stat that really puts our place in causing global warming in perspective:

The United States, with around 5 percent of the world’s population, accounts for a quarter of its greenhouse gases and U.S. emissions rose by 2 percentage points in 2004 alone, according to government figures.

Deutsch probably tried to silence those figures.

Exxon to America: Resistance is Futile

Exxon Mobile Fossil Fuel Dinosaur

On the heals of Bush’s claim to reduce our oil dependency on the Middle East 75% by 2025, Exxon replies it is impossible and not worth trying. From Reuters:

“Realistically, it is simply not feasible in any time period relevant to our discussion today,” Exxon Mobil Senior Vice President Stuart McGill said, referring to what he called the “misperception” that the United States can achieve energy independence.

The world’s largest publicly traded oil company, however, says hoping to end foreign oil imports is not only a bad idea, but also impossible.
…
“Americans depend upon imports to fill the gap,” McGill said. “No combination of conservation measures, alternative energy sources and technological advances could realistically and economically provide a way to completely replace those imports in the short or medium term.”

Instead of trying to achieve energy independence, importing nations like the U.S. should be promoting energy interdependence, McGill said.

I am sure it comes as a big surprise to you that the largest, most profitable corporation ever in the world says there’s nothing you can do to stop them. But I thought you should know. Your base are belong to us.