Ugh! with a capital U

We had today all planned out. Get up, get screws from a auto parts store so we could put license plates on the car, get in line at the DMV, and title and register the new car. Then, we'd come home and get ready to go to the temple, spend the morning there, come back for lunch at home, do some Saturday chores, and get ready for the Ward Primary Talent Show that's tonight. Great plan, right?

It started off fine. Got up and left when we wanted to, stopped by a place we thought might have the screws we needed. They didn't, so we decided to just go wait at the DMV. (Those of you who follow my Twitter had the dubious honor of hearing about the details of my wait.) There were already about 50 people in line by the time we got there. Waited in the cold. Doors opened. Finally made it inside.

Realized that in the midst of our excitement and getting all the papers ready for our trip to the DMV (they were even in the order listed on the "Getting ready" page from the website), we realized that we mistook the CA Vessel Transfer form for the Title. No Title. Ooops. Panicked a little bit, called our seller out in CA. Found a place to get screws. Bought them (all $0.50 worth). Came home and fretted about whether we would be ok driving the car; should we rent a car?; can we get temporary tags while we wait for the title?

Finally got in touch with the seller. Turns out the title is in the mail. Also turns out that we have a (CA) temporary registration already from one of the papers that we both signed. It's a valid temporary registration that he says (and he's a dealer/wholesaler) is valid for up to 6 months.

Phew. So, no rental car necessary.

Jill was a little tired (we had a late dinner at PF Chang's) and decided to lie down for a quick nap. I decided to eat breakfast; she suggested the waffles we had just bought.

Popped two of those suckers in the toaster, got out the butter and grabbed the syrup. Now, we got syrup at Costco - a two-pack of 2 qt. jugs. We were about half-way done with the first bottle. It slipped out of my hands as I was moving it towards the counter. No problem, it's plastic, right?

Wrong.

Apparently the plastic decided it wanted to be brittle, and the bottom and sides of the syrup bottle shattered. In just a few seconds, I had about a quart of syrup on the floor. Now what do I do?

I tried to use a rag and shove the syrup into a plastic cup that we had. Managed to get a few cupfulls, but still had an oozing puddle on the floor. Used several more rags, then tried to clean with soapy water and some other spray stuff that we had. Dried it off. Will have to check on the sticky-factor in a little bit. There's a pile of dishes waiting for me, too.

At least my blueberry waffles were yummy. I decided not to open the second thing of syrup. It can wait for another day. I just had them with Country Crock.

What a morning. It seems like things like this pop up when you're trying to do something good - like going to the temple. It's about time to wake Jill back up so we can get ready. Hopefully there's no more surprises in store for us today.

[UPDATE] Skimmed through my Reader. Jill shared this post from someone about Perspective. I guess the syrup wasn't that bad. But it sure felt like it was ruining my morning.

[update] Spin-offs

Here is first notice relating to my spin-offs. Be sure to add the feeds you want to follow to your RSS feed aggregator, or click Follow, or add to your favorites -- whatever you do to keep track of all the cool people's blogs you read. =)

The Erb Report
* This will continue to be the place that I put news about us: our travels, our special events, random things that happen, and other fun stuff.

The Erb Report - LDS Edition
* I've decided to resurrect an old blog that I started when we were living back in Boston. I enjoyed studying up on these different topics, and thought this would give me some focus for my personal study. Right now, you will find principles of teaching, suggestions for teachers and students, and other thoughts about being a Gospel teacher. I hope to expand on this.

The Erb Report - Politics
* "All politics, all the time."

The Erb Report - Technology & Innovation
* This will be the place for me to share cool new technology and software that I like, my thoughts about innovation, and other posts along these lines.

[[NOTE: These spin-offs contain prior posts from The Erb Report. If you haven't read much before, click around. More will be coming soon. Both Politics and Technology/Innovation have a fresh post, though.]]

Spin-offs

I've decided the time has come. While reviewing my blog posts, I realized that I'm all over the place. I mean, The Erb Report has covered family vacations, tourist trips, must-see YouTube clips, political news, cool technology and tech updates, personal thoughts and musings, comments about books I've read, and just plain random stuff. Basically, there's no focus, except for whatever I happen to be thinking about at the time.

Now, that might be fine for some of you (read: my four followers), who will skim through pretty much anything I throw out there in the blogosphere. But I know there's others of you out there reading this (some of you who comment, many of you who don't) who could probably care less about my night at the symphony, or have no clue what this "crazy" technology is that I'm talking about -- and don't really care.

So where does that leave us? In Clay Christensen's landmark book on innovation, The Innovator's Dilemma, he talks about "giving small opportunities to small organizations," and about "creating capabilities through a spin-out organization." Not that I'm being threatened by some company moving upmarket (or am I? Is something else vying for--and winning--my "customers'" time on the Internet? Will I find myself with no followers?), but I do find that I'm torn with what I should or shouldn't post, and growing more aware of the scattered narrative this haphazard system has provided.

The Innovator's Dilemma tells us that "spin-out organizations are tools for forging new values." To keep my different topics/projects from competing with each other for my resources, I have decided to create some spin-out blogs in areas that I have tended to write about. At this time, only two more blogs will be added, but if I grow more prolific in my writing and broad in my interests there may be others that follow.

A Proclamation Concerning The Erb Report
Whereas, this blog is a way for me to share my thoughts; and
Whereas, my posts have been somewhat chaotic, yet gravitated towards several themes; and
Whereas, I would like to have a dedicated place to gather these thoughts on several themes; and
Whereas, Blogger is user-friendly and free and will allow me to realize these dedicated places;

Now therefore I, JErb, President & CEO of E.R.B., do hereby declare that new blogs shall be established to provide focus to my blogging and allow my "customers" the freedom to choose which subjects they would like to follow. These shall be established at the earliest possible time, and notice shall be made hereupon The Erb Report of such establishment.

So here I go: creating new opportunities in new organizations (read: blogs) and trying to create new capabilities (read: better organization, more followers and more commentors). Wish me luck.

Yuja Wang, and her National Symphony Orchestra debut

On Saturday, Jill and I had the great opportunity to go and hear the National Symphony Orchestra perform at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. And, thanks to a friend, we were able to get really good seats (Prime Orchestra Right).

The Program was as follows:

Charles Dutoit, conductor
Yuja Wang, piano

RAVEL - Le Tombeau de Couperin (orchestrated version)

PROKOFIEV - Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16

STRAVINSKY - The Firebird (complete ballet)

As the title mentions, this was Yuja Wang's debut with the NSO. And boy was it amazing. To be honest, I was not familiar with the first two pieces, and was really only familiar with The Firebird in name only. I was forewarned that the Prokofiev No. 2 was a little "different," and to keep "an open mind." But I found the piece rather fascinating -- accentuated by our great seats with a view of her hands the entire time. Without gushing too much, I'll just say that I was amazed and rather enjoyed the entire evening.

It was a wonderful evening of music. We ended up spending some time that night and the next day looking for YouTube videos of Yuja Wang and other musicians, and stumbled across some pretty cool stuff. (I already posted the supersonic flight of the bumblebee; the related videos can take you wandering through some other musical adventures.)

We hope to have more opportunities to enjoy the arts and appreciate the wonderful talents of others.

Random family activities

Jill got me this gingerbread house kit for my birthday last October. But we never got around to doing it this past Christmas. After dinner today we were talking about what we wanted to do, and we decided that we'd make our house - so we did!

Random, I know. But it was fun. Here's some pics:

in progress

finished product

Google, Twitter, and Innovation

I read an interesting article with a disruptive innovation slant focused on search-giant Google and social networking and micro-blogging upstart Twitter. [Most of you are familiar with Google. For a Twitter primer and history, go HERE.]

As search continues to expand, improve, and adapt, there will be many avenues for innovation. Already, the vertical search market of video searching is being dominated by YouTube. According to the article referenced, YouTube is the second largest search site. If you want to find something, odds are you can find it on YouTube.
* Want to know how to make guacamole? There's about 300 videos to show you.
* Just got a calling to work with the Scouts and need to brush up on some Scouting know-how before a merit badge clinic or camping trip? Re-learn how to make a log cabin fire, tie a bowline knot, or how to fold the flag.
* Have a question you've been dying to Ask a Ninja? Well, you can!
* Want to learn about the Bay of Pigs or the Cuban Missile Crisis?
All of these, and more, have videos online that relate to your search query.

Where is search going? Some companies are looking at Natural Language Processing (NLP) or semantic search to change the way we search and access information.

But search is also going another direction. Twitter has made the news for its nearly instant insight into current events as reported by its millions of users. And, with the application of "hash tags," tweets can be categorized and "followed" in a kind of group chat room way. We first discovered this during last October's LDS General Conference. Individuals using the #ldsconf hash tag made conference one of the hottest trending topics on Twitter. Going to search.twitter.com allows you to search by word to "see what's happening -- right not, and to follow trending topics.

The "Twitter in Media" section of the Twitter Wikipedia article has some interesting examples of Twitter being used to convey real-time information, usually ahead of traditional news sources. Go there to read about the
* UC Berkeley grad student in Egypt who tweeted his arrest and ended up getting help from his followers
* The passenger who used TwitPic to send a picture of the downed US Airways flight as it landed in the Hudson
* And how the American Red Cross uses Twitter and hash tags to spread the word about disasters and relief efforts

Read what john borthwick thinks about Google and Twitter. Is this the David that can take down the Goliath?

IMHO, search.twitter may have found its niche for search in real-time events, but it's not out of the woods, yet. Don't expect Google to fall by the wayside any time soon. Web search as we know it (largely keyword- and rankings-based) is comfortable for most users; change will be hard. Twitter has yet to find a business model that will make it profitable. It will be interesting to see how Twitter addresses this and where they go next. Will they try the Google route and run on ad-revenue? Will they just be bought up by someone who has monetizing plans in mind? For an in-depth analysis of Twitter's disruptive capability, visit the InnoBlog. Also, I think it's safe to say that people search for information for a reason. Although it may not be in style to always cite sources while chatting with your social networking crowd, I see a potential weakness with the search.twitter: with all the Re-Tweeting (RT) going on, how do you know who first put the information out there? What do you know about the person? Can you contact them? How do you know they were there? At least with "traditional" web searches, you can take pains to identify owners of the website, discover who is responsible for content creation, and provide a stable (mostly) URL for someone to re-create your research. I'm not sure how you would do any of this through a medium like Twitter.

That being said- I have found Twitter to be a useful tool. I enjoy the people -- both friends and random individuals -- that I follow, and continue to get pointed towards new things and hear about events I otherwise wouldn't have known about. Twitter is growing on me, and I'm sure I'll continue to discover new ways to use it as a tool. In the meantime, I won't be giving up my Google searches, but I may begin to sift through the millions of Tweets to see if there isn't someone out there who can help me with the next question that I have.

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[Supersonic] Flight of the Bumblebee

I keep meaning to write about the concert that we went to the other night, which was amazing. Jill wrote about it (in several posts during the evening) on her blog, but I'll add my notes here soon.

This is a video of the pianist who played at the concert, playing a really fast version of Flight of the Bumblebee. Enjoy.

I told you it was fast!

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Losing the billable hour?

In all this talk of bad economy, the need to innovate, and the impact upon people across the market -- but what about lawyers?

I mean, the only things that are constant (besides change) are death and taxes. And those are two things that will keep lawyers around -- of all types.
DEATH
--homicide? You may need a criminal lawyer
--wrongful death? You may need a litigator
--natural death? Well of course you're going to need an estate lawyer
--death of a company? Get your bankruptcy lawyers
--death of a relationship? Plenty of divorce attorneys around
TAXES
--own a company? Get a good tax lawyer to help save you money
--forget to pay your taxes? Seek an appointment...
--can't understand the tax code? You probably have a law-maker to thank, and the team of lawyers that helped draft it

--and I'm sure there's others.

But I digress. This article from the New York Times caught my eye as it mentioned some law firms re-thinking the billable hour, and trying to come up with innovative ways to keep clients and keep money -- realizing that perhaps the old way of doing business just might not keep working in the current economic situation. Other industries have realized this in the past; others are slow to learn.

Now, several of my friends are at law school (or moving on to practice). What do you think about the potential to lose the billable hour? What's the "shop talk"?

One-month Report Card

Marking the one-month anniversary of Change, a financial columnist who covers Wall Street offers a grade to the new administration: F

A few snips from her article:
* "Certainly the political wrangling of the past month has dispelled optimism that President Obama can change the contentious nature of American politics. Both Democrats and Republicans have spurned Obama’s leadership."

* "The free-for-all over the stimulus bill portrayed Congress in the worst possible light — no surprise there — and led Americans to view not only the process but the bill with utter skepticism. Delivering a 1000-page bill to our legislators just two hours before the signing deadline (and then going on a long-weekend holiday before signing it) was outrageous. The mortgage relief plan hasn’t been received much better."

* "At the same time, Obama’s own administration seems sharply divided between pragmatists and ideologues. For instance, one camp is pushing for protectionist measures while the other recognizes the dire consequences that "Buy American" provisions might deliver."

Add to this bifurcated stance on trade the wishy-washy actions towards Gitmo and the softening of other campaign rhetoric (falling closely in line with the previous, President Bush policies in areas of national security, economics, etc.) -- it's no wonder that the Hope and Optimism find themselves softening among the People.

In fairness, we can't expect him--or anyone else who holds this high office--to do everything he said. Presidents, even Obama, are only human. The realities of governing will continue to conflict with the lofty rhetoric and compromises will be sought. Unfortunately, some compromises are better than others, and the "I won" attitude surrounding the so-called stimulus bill only underscores the poor policy that comes out of frenzied lawmaking.

And Liz Peeks isn't the only one pointing out the new administration's shortcomings. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Karl Rove asks, "Is the Administration Winging It? Obama's reputation for competence is at risk."

Rove points out issues such as vetting potential Cabinet appointees, and the withdrawals of Gov. Richardson and Sen. Gregg. "The administration treated as inconsequential the failure of its choices for Treasury secretary and White House performance officer, as well as its labor secretary-designate's spouse, to pay taxes. It failed to uncover Tom Daschle's problems with more than $102,943 in previously unpaid taxes, penalties and interest -- and once it did, aides assumed Mr. Daschle would be given a pass."

Also, "Team Obama was winging it when it declared the stimulus would "save or create" 2.5 million, then three million, then 3.7 million, and then four million new jobs. These were arbitrary and erratic numbers, and they knew there's no way to count "saved" jobs. Americans, being commonsensical, will focus on Mr. Obama's promise to "create" jobs. It's highly unlikely that more than 180,000 jobs will be created each month by the end of next year. The precise, state-by-state job numbers the administration used to sell the stimulus are likely to come back to haunt them as well."

On Bipartisanship? Don't even go there. The "stimulus" bill was a great example of how well Republicans and Democrats work together, and how well they follow the President's lead...

On Ethics? Nevermind the dozen or so lobbyists who were issued waivers to serve in Administration positions.

There's lots of Great Expectations out there - Let's hope they can pull it together.

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a Twitter tool

So I guess I've been on a Twitter theme lately. I saw this site the other day and wanted to pass it along to you.

Twitter will tell you when someone begins to follow you, but do you ever wonder how long they actually do? This site Qwitter, http://useqwitter.com/, allows you to set up an email alert that tells you when someone stops following you, and also the tweet that you sent right before they unfollowed.

In case you didn't have enough things to think about with your Twitter account between your updates, how many you follow, and how many follow you - now you can see why your friends ditch you!

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Pretty lily for a pretty lady

One of Jill's flowers
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

RB: taking it back, o7d sk007

[that's my version of old school in leetspeak, if you couldn't read the title]

So, my cousin-in-law (?) Kallee wrote a fun post about playing Super Mario Brothers on the Wii. I didn't know that you could buy something for Wii that let you play all the games that I used to play when I was a kid. You may be officially obsessed with Mario, but I know that Jill and I were officially obsessed with the Wii over our Christmas break. It was snowing so much in Rexburg that we hardly ventured out much, and we spent a large part of our time playing Wii Tennis and Bowling. We even tried the Wii Fit (and man were my hips sore from the hula hoop one!).

Yay for cool games like Super Mario Bro's. Sadly, I don't recall ever beating it myself, but I did have a cool babysitter growing up who would get us to level 8 with a whole bunch of lives (you know, where it stops being numbers and you get the crown and other symbols). Then we'd just play for a long time. She would also bring over other cool games like Contra and Boxing -- she had a better selection than we did. Although Bubble Bobble was a good one that we had, too.

As kids, our time was limited on the NES, and I think mom wasn't thrilled that our grandparents got us the system one year for Christmas/Hanukkah. Apparently, though, Mom would be out there at night playing for hours "trying to figure out why we liked it so much." (I imagine she still does the same thing with the xBox and Guitar Hero that they have at home now.)

Fun times -- thanks for helping bring back some memories, Kallee!
.......

RB: Kangaroo Zoo

I have several adorable nieces and nephews on my wife's side of the family. I can't believe how fast they grow up! It seems like just yesterday they were much fewer in number and not so big. Now, they're writing their own blogs and starring in videos and having all sorts of fun.

I thought this recent post by Jax was pretty neat. Apparently, there is this kids' place with tons of inflatable toys. Thanks for sharing your pictures - it's fun to see Jakey playing. That's such a great idea - you always see those things in someone's backyard that they rented for a party. My high school rented several for our grad night, and our Mutual group had some for stake youth conference. Someone had the great idea to get a bunch of them, fill up a big room, and then charge people to come in and play. I wonder how profitable it is compared to renting them out one a time, when you factor in overhead for the building (doesn't look like much besides a warehouse, though), the electricity, the maintenance, and the insurance. Hmmmmm, I wonder if they let big kids play there, too?


* So, I think I just started a new "thing." Tweeple use RT to mean Re-Tweet, which is like hitting FWD on those emails you get (you know you do it). I decided to use RB to mean Re-Blog, since I'm "FWD'ing" this post. Have you seen this used before? Maybe I'll start a trend!
........

The Answer to my number sequence post

I mentioned in my earlier post that "maybe you'll win something" if you could correctly identify the next number in the sequence of numbers that I gave.

The sequence was called the Robert Morris sequence, or the look-and-say sequence.
Basically, you read aloud the sequence, starting with the first number, and speak the count of, and name, each digit. It started with the number "1"

1: one [number] one, yields
11: two [number] one, yields
21: one [number] two, one [number] one,
and so on.

Congratulations again to Kallee and Jax for correctly identifying the next number in the sequence. (Did you cheat?)

I tried to think of something for these winners, and decided that since I like to see people share my posts (in Google Reader) or comment on my blog, that I would take the next few days to promote their blogs and hopefully get another reader or another person to comment.

[BTW, if you didn't figure it out, the number post was my intellectual attempt at de-lurking (explained by MommaMia). Although there are several of you that I know read my blog, very rarely does anyone comment.]

So, keep on the watch, and I'll try to work my muggle magic.

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The Ultimate Where's Waldo

Although we did not brave the crowds or the cold, millions did. January 20, 2009 once again showed the peaceful transition of power in American politics. It also introduced us to all sorts of new things:
--new cars
--new helicopters
--new administrations (complete with a tracker)
--and new websites
One other new thing that I discovered was this website called Gigapan. By visiting the link below, you can see a composite of images from the Inauguration. It allows you to zoom and pan and see an extraordinary amount of detail. I'm sure lots of fun things can be found in this image -- let's see what you can find, and then share them! (One blogger started a "Where's Waldo?" of sorts for several LDS Church leaders. I disagreed with the suggested solution, and upon analyzing the picture, propose that they aren't in the Gigapan image -- their seats were blocked by the press riser the image was produced from. Sorry folks!)

http://gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c

I've included some images I've found. Can you spot them in the big image? What did you find?

Weird camera worship? Crying over spilt '-Minolta?

Yo-Yo Ma taking a picture of the proceedings
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[President] Obama's Elf?

Stumbled across this today...enjoy

Secret Base Uncovered by Google Earth?

A post on the Corner caught my eye, and led me to this article at the UK Times Online.

According to the article:

The US was secretly flying unmanned drones from the Shamsi airbase in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan as early as 2006, according to an image of the base from Google Earth.

The image — that is no longer on the site but which was obtained by The News, Pakistan's English language daily newspaper — shows what appear to be three Predator drones outside a hangar at the end of the runway. The Times also obtained a copy of the image, whose co-ordinates confirm that it is the Shamsi airfield, also known as Bandari, about 200 miles southwest of the Pakistani city of Quetta.

An investigation by The Times yesterday revealed that the CIA was secretly using Shamsi to launch the Predator drones that observe and attack al-Qaeda and Taleban militants around Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

Click through to read more.

One of the outcomes the digital age is that more and more and more information is available online -- often for free. The challenge now, it seems, is to be able to weed out the poor information (read: false, spun, out-dated, biased, etc.) from the good information, and to discern between those that are experts and knowledgeable and those that are not. I've been collecting different websites, online tools, and search engines that I have found useful; perhaps I'll share someday.

Information out on the web -- news articles, blog posts, video, maps, satellite images, audio files, and much much more -- can be used be anyone willing to take the time to search. Businesses can gather intelligence on their competitors; consumers can compare and contrast companies, services and products; news reporters can gather information from within and across borders; and governments can discover information about their allies and enemies.

In this case, someone used the freely-available Google Earth to discover what is claimed to be the presence of US Predator drones at a base in Pakistan. This type of discovery, done through an "open source," can lead to what is known as Open Source Intelligence. [It's not just the gathering of open information, but a process. Check out the Wikipedia article for more information.] This kind of discovery and "intelligence" may seem like second-nature to those of us who grew up in the Internet/Google age -- going online for information -- but this organized concept is spreading to all types of organizations.

Nice use of Google for OSINT. Look here for some other interesting things found on Google Streetview. What else do you use open source(s) for?

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Congrats to

Jax and Kallee for answering the Question correctly.

your prize is coming...

NYTimes.com: Lebanese in Shock Over Arrest of an Accused Spy

This page was sent to you by: Message from sender: Thought this was interesting. INTERNATIONAL / MIDDLE EAST February 19, 2009 Lebanese in Shock Over Arrest of an Accused Spy By ROBERT F. WORTH Investigators say Ali al-Jarrah confessed to a career of espionage for Israel spectacular in its scope and length. 1. Student Expectations Seen as Causing Grade Disputes 2. The Minimalist: Your Morning Pizza 3. Op-Ed Columnist: Cheney and the Goat Devil 4. A Swiss Bank Is Set to Open Its Secret Files 5. Well: Vitamin Pills: A False Hope? » Go to Complete List Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company Privacy Policy

We want some mo' ...

A New York Times headline today read, "Automakers Seek $14 Billion More in Aid." And the Wall Street Journal article reported that automakers may need "up to $21.6 billion more combined in bailout loans to put them on the road to recovery." GM and Chrysler both said that they'd need additional funds, or else they'd have to file for bankruptcy. This article states that they also claim that

the cost of a bankruptcy reorganization, with the government providing financing to help it through that process, would be far greater than their latest loan requests. Without such help, the companies would have to liquidate, creating staggering new job losses.

First, let's just point out a few things. The phrase "latest loan requests" was used. Apparently, the first infusion of money was insufficient, so a second round is requested. What can guarantee these additional funds will work? This is? was? the free market we're talking about, right? So--what will keep these automakers from requesting additional funds after the new $14 billion is disbursed? At what point will these loan increases exceed their purported cost of bankrupty with government financing? Are we factoring in the cost to industry in general -- Are actions like this similar to trade protectionism with tariffs, etc. that will ultimately hurt the American auto consumer because of the responses made by foreign auto manufacturers.

 

Second, let's note that of the "Big Three," only two have asked for assistance. The third, Ford Motor Company, "has not received federal assistance and has no requests pending."

 

What are they doing, then?

 

Maybe they've paid attention to another NYT article (op-ed) that came out last November, that pointed our minds back to the 1950's, when American Motors was facing turbulent times following the death of its president and the company was struggling to survive and find a way to compete with the "Big Three."

 

This op-ed pointed out that during this time, the new president at American Motors cut his salary and other executive pay, personally bought stock in the company, and communicated with the workers directly. In this day of union stranglehold on the automakers, employees need to realize that American automakers need to be competitive with foreign automakers; that the costs cut on the autos to balance the increased labor costs means lower quality and less style options; and that they're banging their head on the wall of the dead-end street that Reuther warned of back in the 1950's - 60's.

[Walter Reuther was the head of the United Automobile Workers, who told the new president of American Motors, "Getting more and more pay for less and less work is a dead-end street."]

The op-ed suggests some similar cost-saving measures for our day, based on the American Motors turn-around story. "Get rid of the planes, the executive dining rooms -- all the symbols that breed resentment among the hundreds of thousands who will also be sacrificing to keep the companies afloat."

 

So what did Detroit do? "Big Three auto CEOs flew private jets to ask for taxpayer money." At this meeting with lawmakers, the questions were asked, (1) did any of you fly here commercial? [no], and (2) are you planning on selling the jet and flying back commercial? [no]. In their defense [?!?!], executives told lawmakers "they are streamlining business operations in general."

 

So, who was the president of American Motors that turned it around without government bailouts and by personally sacrificing along with other cost-saving measures to keep AMC in business? George Romney. Who wrote the op-ed? His son, W. Mitt Romney, who turned around Bain & Company, the 2002 SLC Olympics, and other companies.

 

GM and Chrysler want more of our taxpayer dollars to avoid bankruptcy? What have their executives done to show that they're willing to sacrifice and find tough ways to become solvent? The "Big Three should" follow Romney's advice and make some tough, sacrificing decisions. And Congress should follow his other piece of advice: Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.

FWD: Heritage Morning Bell

The Largest Wasted Tax Cut in History

[excerpts]

[...] [T]he White House has been pointing out to journalists that President Barack Obama signed "one of the largest tax cuts in history." But just because the Obama Administration calls something a tax cut, doesn't make it so. More than a third of Obama's "Making Work Pay" tax plan goes to people who do not pay income taxes. That makes it a welfare income redistribution plan, not a tax cut. That is why, after President Obama told House Republicans he would not compromise in any way on his tax plan, he lost the entire caucus.

 

But let's set aside the fact that a third of Obama's 'tax cut' is really just welfare by another name. Even the parts of it that do actually cut the income taxes of tax paying Americans are destined to fail. This is because the Obama tax cut repeats the exact same mistakes that President George Bush made. Just like Bush's 2001 and 2008 tax cuts, Obama's tax cut is a purely temporary cut designed to boost consumer spending. [...]

 

With about a third of the $787 billion economic stimulus package devoted to tax cuts that have no hope of stimulating the economy, it should come as no surprise that White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said he "wouldn't foreclose" on the possibility that the Obama Administration would come back to Congress asking for yet more deficit spending stimulus in the near future.

Can you guess the next number?

Ran across this today at work. Can you guess the next number?

1 11 21 1211 ...

Comment with your answer and maybe you'll win something!

.Submissions as of 02-19-2009.
Erica: 122111
Daija: 2212
Kallee: 111221
Jax: 111221
.SUBMISSIONS HAVE BEEN CLOSED.

.Jax and Kallee both answered correctly. I haven't thought of a cool prize, but I figured I could promote your blogs in my next post. And, I'll also write something about the sequence. Unless you want to tell everyone how you chose that answer.

cheers!

Return of the Gym-nast

or something like that.

Finally started on one of our E.R.B. goals, and went to my gym at work today. Ran on the treadmill for 20 minutes and did some stretching after. Pretty sure that's the most exercise I've done in the last year and a half, which is pretty pathetic. So, now I'm trying to go every work day; we'll see how it goes.

[update 02-18-2009] did 20 minutes and 1.5 miles on the elliptical machine

In the market to buy a house?

The following appeared on Boston.com:

Headline: 2 Romney estates hit the market

Date:     Feb 17, 2009      

 

"The "cabin" in Deer Valley, Utah, which overlooks a reservoir and mountains, comes fully furnished with custom-made light fixtures, specially sculpted fireplace screens, and eight full bathrooms. Called the "perfect retreat," it is 9,500 square feet on 11 acres. The asking price: $5,250,000."

____________________________________________________________

 

[JLE]

Misunderestimated Obama?

Great article by Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 17, 2009; 11:16 AM

When President Obama signs the mega-stimulus bill today, he will have either:

--Won a remarkable victory by pushing through the biggest financial package in American history in record time, far faster than any of his predecessors; or

--Rammed through a porkulus measure that won't help the economy and has decimated his efforts at achieving bipartisanship. [snip]

continued HERE.

I'm leaning towards the porkulus options.

The article also talks about some of the ways the Obama Administration is acting like the previous administration, and discusses in brief faith-based initiatives and the Gregg withdrawal.

Facebook limitations -- don't be too friendly

Besides the fact that Facebook changed its Terms of Service and will continue to keep the data that you post, even after you delete your Facebook account ...

Check out THIS STORY about this guy, whose account was disabled for adding too many new friends.

From his article:

I am not a shy man. I have been on this earth more than 50 years and in public relations for 30 years. Needless to say, I know a lot of people. Add to this regular media appearances, an aggressive speaking schedule, and the fact that mine is the first name on the door of the largest entertainment PR firm in the world and it’s safe to say a lot of people know me, too.

So I made friends. And when you make friends on Facebook, you get to see your friends’ friends. If I were home watching television or had a spare moment at my desk, I would ask people I knew, and interesting friends of friends, to add me as their friend. At the same time, literally hundreds of people were inviting me to be their friend—some I knew and many who I didn’t but I saw no reason to say no. After all, who doesn’t want a friend?

As I was adding friends, I would occasionally get a warning from the Facebook gods that I was engaging in abusive behavior and potentially violating their terms of service. But none of these warnings mentioned how I was being abusive. I looked at their terms of service and saw nothing about adding friends and decided to ignore these warnings. Last week, as I was inviting new friends at a vigorous rate, my Facebook page suddenly crashed.

His attempt to communicate with people at Facebook was cursorily responded to; he didn't receive attention until one of his new contacts that he made in a business setting offered to talk to one of his contacts, who happened to be a Facebook employee.

Apparently, in the web services/social networking crowd, it's still who you know, not just what.

[UPDATE 02-18-2009]
This just in from the Facebook team; I noticed it when I signed in via a browser and not on my Bb:

Terms of Use Update
Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised. For more information, visit the Facebook Blog.

If you want to share your thoughts on what should be in the new terms, check out our group Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.

I have the best wife ever =)

Today was our 3rd Valentine's Day as a married couple, and 4th as a couple.

I planned our first one together. We were dating at BYU-Idaho. I kidnapped Jill, well offered her a secret agent mission -- she thought she was supposed to be babysitting our friends' kids, and she had some spy clues to follow, and got driven down to IF--blindfolded--for dinner at Satos).

And for our second one, Jill was working and I was finishing up school at BYU-I. We had a deja vu dinner at Satos--no kidnapping this time, and snuggled up to stay warm inside from the snow.

I planned our third one when we were both working in Boston. (Ok, I wasn't really working; my job had basically ended a few days earlier, so I had a little more time to prepare.) We had a fancy multi-course meal at our home, complete with fancy menu, candles, and table settings...and games)

This year, Jill wanted a turn to plan the day and she took the reins for the fourth one. It actually started yesterday, when Jill let me take her out to see Taken at the theater. Not quite a chick flick or romcom. Then, she let me sleep in today, while she made me breakfast in bed. We had a delicious french toast bake and some ham with a mango maple glaze. After breakfast, we exchanged little gifts and watched Sleepless in Seattle.

She also did something really cool. She bought some canvas and acrylic paints, put a tarp out, and we painted Valentine's pictures. (See below). I think I'll call mine "Eternal Erb," or E^2, for short. Jill's is a fun concoction (Picasso-esque?), loaded with hearts, music, storms and sunshine, names, and other stuff. This was probably one of the most fun things we've done in a while.


I had to leave to sing in a quartet, and while I was gone she set up for Round 2. She set up a tent in our living room and we played games. (She always wins.) We played slap jack and crazy 8's. She made me a yummy sandwich of a bagel, ham, and a smoked gouda cheese. (I'm typically a sharp cheddar, colby-jack, pepper jack, and provolone kind of guy, but she's totally got me hooked on this smoked gouda. It is so rich and creamy...and addicting....and yummy.)

Then, we went out to our Saturday evening session of Stake Conference. It was a really good meeting, and I'll have to write more about it later.

We took a new friend and recent convert home from the meeting (which ran long), and came home around 9:45 pm.

[Aside: Ran into an missionary from the Oregon Portland Mission (OPM). He is here studying European History at George Mason and is recently engaged. He totally didn't remeber me. It's ok though, Fahey, I forgive you.]

We have some apples and cheese and Fresca for dinner, and will probably close out the night catching up on one of the TV shows that we watch post-airing via Hulu or SurfTheChannel.

My life is great and my wife is amazing. Every day is an adventure--through the storms and the sunshine--and I'm glad she's at my side.

I love you, Jill. Happy Valentine's Day!

<3 <3 <3 <3

P.S. Just in case there were some of you out there thinking that I didn't do anything this round, I'll have you know I got Jill some beautiful flowers, a nice card, some coupons for her to redeem for stuff like turning the cell phones off and making dinner, chocolate, and a new memory-foam pillow that she's been talking about for a while now.

engagement

a friend of mine got engaged today. i wonder if it was as involved as this proposal...

we'll have to see if she blogs about it.

here's my two-cents for their reception planning. ok, so it's a video:

happy paraskavedekatriaphobia

Here's your Greek lesson for the day:

 

Paraskeví (Παρασκευή) = Friday

dekatreís (δεκατρείς) = thirteen

phobía (φοβία) = fear

 

For a brief history of its origin and other folkloric details, check out the Friday the 13th Wikipedia entry.

 

One superstition I thought was interesting: having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners. (So, can you get around this by sitting 13 people at two tables? Something to think about the next time you're throwing a dinner party. Beware, it doesn't always have to be 13 -- you could get invited to spend the weekend on Soldier Island...)

 

So, on St. Patrick's Day you wear green, or you get pinched, right? And on Valentine's Day you wear red.

What do you wear on Friday the 13th? And if you don't, what happens?

 

 

This just in... Your future slipping away?

Or, Porkulus: How the US Congress is going to spend more and more and more of your money

From jasoninthehouse:

" http://tinyurl.com/b7ojsj Here is the text of the "stimulus" bill. Just released #tcot "

If it's *so* urgent, why doesn't the bulk of spending kick in until the next 2-5 years?

Why are we spending money now on projects that won't get funding until 2015?

This isn't stimulus- this is pork^3 and appropriations bills for the next 4 or 5 sessions of Congress.

Perhaps someone should suggest a Bill that bans all further appropriations bills until 2015 (except defense and program authorizations).

An impact of a few Trillion. (No, not Trillian, the instant messenger aggregator. T-r-i-l-l-i-o-n). We're almost talking real money here.

And besides this stimulus bill, remember that Sec. Geithner is amenable to spending a trillion if necessary to "continue" to stabilize the financial sector. Of course, with your tax dollars, coming from the guy who skipped out of paying himself ....

Ugh
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Link Love

Give the gift of Link Love this Valentine's Day http://budurl.com/linklove

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

illegal law suit?

16 Mexican nationals attempting to illegally enter the United States through this man's ranch are now suing him for $32 million. Crazy? Read the story HERE.

new gop.gov

check out the new website http://www.gop.gov/

The Ninja Hauler

Saw this the other day. Here's a snippet from (supposedly) a real Craigslist ad for a used car.

NINJA HAULER: 2005 Nissan Xterra - $12900 (Ronan / Lake County )
________________________________________
Reply to: sale-926508578@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-11-19, 10:04PM MST
OK, let me start off by saying this Xterra is only available for purchase by the manliest of men (or women) . My friend, if it was possible for a vehicle to sprout chest hair and a five o'clock shadow, this Nissan would look like Tom Selleck . It is just that manly .

It was never intended to drive to the mall so you can pick up that adorable shirt at Abercrombie & Fitch that you had your eye on . It wasn't meant to transport you to yoga class or Linens & Things . No, that's what your Prius is for . If that's the kind of car you're looking for, then just do us all a favor and stop reading right now . I mean it . Just stop .

If you want to keep reading, see the post HERE.

Now that's a real car. lol

Change. Has. Come.

A friend of mine just blogged:

My former command [USS Port Royal] - and home for 3 years - is stuck in shoal water next to Honolulu International Airport. This is easily one of the five worst things you could ever do to a ship. Read more.

RADM Walsh, according to the KHON2 article, said: "[An] investigation will determine exactly why the ship got to the point where she was in shoal water."

Little do they know that making that determination might entail traveling back in time to June 3, 2008. For I am personally convinced that this tragic comedy surrounding the USS Port Royal is a victim of the law of unintended consequences.

As he promised us, President Obama is affecting the oceans. I'm quite certain the Naval investigation will find that the "rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal," rendering previous depth charts unfit for navigation. What used to be a 35-feet plus sounding of water has apparently receded to a mere 22-feet. This is the result of the planet healing, global warming trends reversing, and the oceans shrinking back up into the polar ice caps. It's not the ship captain's fault - he was acting on information that was deemed to be reliable. It's the ocean's fault. Or is it...?

Clearly, the Navy will need new charts.
Change has come.

(P.S. Does this make President Obama a national security risk? What will be affected next?)

[[Crossposted: http://www.redstate.com/jerb/2009/02/08/change-has-come/ ]]

Looking for something to watch?

Received the following message at my Twitter account from freshman Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT):

" http://tinyurl.com/dh8zj9 Bit about my CNN freshman project. "

In case you weren't aware, CNN.com is doing a weekly series, following two freshman Congressman (one Democrat, one Republican), who largely self-produce this content by carrying around a Flip video camera and documenting their activities.

The article, linked above, goes into more detail.

Want to see some greenies/n00bies/freshman Congressman during their first year on the Hill? Check it out at CNN.com

Stay tuned for more items of interestand intrigue.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Calling all Tweeple, and, check the side-bar

This post is a combined de-lurking post and a boost-up-my-Twitter-friends post.

FIRST
So, if you Twitter, let me know how to
follow you in the comments. (or, click follow-me on my blog homepage).

If you don't Twitter, but know what Twitter is, tell me what you think about it.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about - leave me a note and I'll send you some info.

SECOND
If you blog, and you don't see your blog listed on my blogroll on the right side (or would like to change how yours is listed), let me know and I'll make sure to include you (or edit).

Cheers!

Want to Succeed? Schedule a meeting with ...

Yourself.

 

As we continue venturing into uncharted economic waters, how can you keep your job on track and continue delivering your best? Schedule a weekly meeting with yourself. That's right: no matter how busy you are, this is not a luxury. It's essential.

 

Every week, take a quiet hour to reflect on recent critical events -- conflicts, failures, opportunities you exploited, observations of others' behavior, feedback from others. Consider how you responded, what went well, what didn't, and what might be more effective in the future.

 

Never cancel this meeting -- it's crucial.

 

Read the full article here.

 

From Gill Corkindale, "A New Year's Resolution: Schedule Regular Meetings with Yourself," HBPS, 5 Jan 2009.

 

 

Awesome.

18 minutes of toe-tapping, hand-clapping, clean fun and music.

check it:

Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy
From TED

Your body and your diet

as part of our goal to eat better:

What you eat can boost your productivity

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=598&sid=1593714

 

100 Foods to Aid in your Productivity

http://foodproof.com/photos/full/i-guess-eating-can-help-you-1265

 

Fruits and Veges in Season

http://foodproof.com/blogs/view/post/when-fruits-vegetables-are-in-season-444

now you can do some strategic shopping.

Info: Street View stuff

Google's Street View came up in a conversation with some co-workers today. Apparently, there's still a few people out there who didn't know that you can view (an ever-increasing selection of) addresses at the "street level" - and "walk" the guy (I can't remember his name) around the neighborhood. Fun stuff. You can even incorporate the street views into your driving (or new walking) directions, and literally see the way -- drive the route virtually, if you will.

Anyway, we decided to go a quick Google search (of course) to find out about street view, and -- since I was talking to some of our science and tech guys -- decided to learn about the camera and the process. Here's a few links to get you started.

the wiki article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Street_View

 

the camera

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9724604-7.html

 

the funny streetview blog

http://funnystreetview.blogspot.com/

frequent updates of random things you can find on street view. here's some fun ones

http://funnystreetview.blogspot.com/2008/01/pirate-cropdrawing-on-google-maps.html

http://funnystreetview.blogspot.com/2009/01/firefox-cropcircle-on-google-maps.html

http://funnystreetview.blogspot.com/2009/02/man-gets-arrested-on-google-maps.html

enjoy. and decrease your anxiety of driving to a new place by checking out the route before you go.

one last one -- let me know what you see  here 

...

DoJ employees failing spam scam test

Seeing if department employees would respond to spam requests, as part of an ongoing evaluation of employees, this email apparently caused some waves outside of the small group it was initially sent to. Even federal employees know how to hit FWD and pass along a juicy ... rumor. Kind of like a lot of stuff that hits my inbox.

Justice did not anticipate response to bogus e-mail

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090204_2057.php

Report: Justice Department sends hoax e-mail to test workers

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10153795-83.html

...

Two new Google tools

Sync your Google contacts with Blackberry

http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Now_Sync_Google_Contacts_With_BlackBerry/551-95558-643.html

-my only complaint: there's not an option to keep calendar entries "forever" -- Google Sync for Calendar (included as part of this new Sync) continually deleted my appointments -- my colleagues were wondering why I canceled meetings in the middle of the night. My challenges came with trying to sync my Bb with my enterprise server and with Google Sync - I think the phone was having issues trying to figure out what to sync. But my other problem is that old events get deleted (I think 4 months is the longest it will let you keep on the Bb). Google is aware of this issue. http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=75095dc91f64c1ea&hl=en

And says that your Google calendar keeps the events, but deletes them from your phone because of "memory issues." Well, my Bb calendar is set to keep appointments forever, and I haven't noticed any space issues... It's helpful to be able to look back or search for past or future events that may be outside of the 4 month or 1 year span... 

-but if this doesn't matter, Sync away

Stalk your Friends with Google Latitude

http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Stalk_Your_Friends_With_Google_Latitude/551-98555-643.html

Just in case you don't think people can keep track of you through your Twitter or Facebook updates, let them "see" where you are. Haven't tried this yet, but I'll keep you posted.

**BONUS**

Google Ocean - a plug-in/layer for Google Earth. You have to download the program, but it will have you diving around the world before you know it.

bbq explosion: part 2

I mentioned before (either here or shared in my Reader) the delicacy know as the "BBQ Explosion" -- a stunning combination of bacon, sausage, and more bacon. After finding its way around cyberspace quickly after being posted, and shared via pretty much every social network imaginable, this little piggy went to print. In the paper of record.

Check it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/dining/28bacon.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

the aftermath, as noted by the NYT

Amazing lunch

So, this is going to be like my journal entries from when I was 8. (Ok, so probably from 8-21...). But I went out to lunch today and had the most amazing, delicious lunch at Equinox Restaurant in Washington, DC.

I was there with someone who was a "regular," which made the experience that much more interesting and enjoyable. The head chef and owner cam out to our table to introduce the [lunch] menu, explaining the specials, some things they had going in the back that weren't on the menu, and ended with -- "and if none of that suits you, let me know what's on your mind and we'll see what we can do."

I started out with the Cream of Parsnip and Granny Smith Apple Soup (over In-House Duck Confit, Roasted Shallots, and Apple Julienne). The duck, apple julienne, and shallots were in my bowl, and then they poured the soup from a "pitcher" of sorts over it in front of me. Nice.

But actually, before that we had some fresh (potato?) rolls and a "shot" of their lobster bisque soup. Had I tried the lobster bisque before I ordered, I may have been tempted to pass up on parsnip and apple creation and go with the yummy bisque. Anyway.

My main course was the Wild Carolina Grouper Filet with Marscapone Grits (with toasted Pumpkin Seeds, Diced Avocado, Blood Orange-citrus vinaigrette, and seasoned popped corn around the edges of the plate). It was amazing, to say the least.

The whole experience was wonderful and the food excellent. If it weren't so expensive, I'd probably go back tomorrow! I'll have to keep this in mind for a future dinner =)

Ah. Great food. Great company. Great conversation.

I love DC.

Your little piece of knowledge for the day

Rival - from the Latin rivalis, meaning one using the same river as another.

Interesting, eh?