Walking the Blog

Welcome to the Neighborhood

2012-01-11T14:10:00.000-08:00

Our new house sits at the base of a vast expanse of hilly open space, so it came as no surprise that our first welcome to the neighborhood came not from the Smiths or the Joneses but rather from the Quails. A group of roughly ten to fifteen California quail make an almost daily stopover in the hillside brush of our backyard. Much like penguins, they prefer to walk and nest in the ground brush rather than in trees. At our island home near Seattle, we would see wildlife every single day. Deer, eagles, hawks, wild pheasant, cormorants, pelicans, otters, sea lions, harbor seals, coyotes, and on a rare occasion, orcas off the nearby beach. Appears our little terrier will continue to have a coterie of critter guests. The tail is wagging mightily.

Adieu 2011

2012-01-09T08:25:00.000-08:00

The last year brought a couple of very important changes to our lives. The most immediate is that I am "back" in Northern California, having spent the past several years in the Pacific Northwest. Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver will remain very much in my heart. While the market at the SF Ferry Building is nice, it's no Pike Place or Granville Island Market. And let's not mention the coffee issue, Blue Bottle notwithstanding. Something about the water up there. The second major change in 2011 is that we bought a larger spread in a very nice town in the Bay Area, if for no better reason than to allow our precocious Norwich terrier the space to run to his heart's delight. That and we needed the extra rooms to house all the books accumulated over the years from caffeine-induced spending sprees at Powell's and Elliott Bay. Now if we had room for the kayaks... and all the umbrellas.

Now that I am replanting my flag back in the People's Republic of California, the lights on this long dormant weblog have been switched back on. I'll be cleaning off the cobwebs and sanding down the rust from five years of dormancy.

Spring Cleaning

2006-05-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

Guess this blog has been in winter hibernation for too long. Much has happened since November. A monumental understatement, for those in the know. But before I dive back into the blogging process and in journaling the noteworthy events of my life from the past six months, maybe it is enough for now to have logged back into the long dormant Blogger account and tapped a few keystrokes. As soon as my waking eyes readjust to the light of early summer, more should follow.

Royal Blue

2005-11-08T16:00:00.000-08:00

Read the San Francisco Chronicle account of Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla's weekend visit to San Francisco in all of its granola-fest glory; just look at their itinerary: a farmer's market in Point Reyes, Alice Waters' organic schoolyard garden, organic food purveyors at the Ferry Building, the uber-bohemian theatrical mainstay "Beach Blanket Babylon", and a homeless shelter in the Tenderloin (article here). Talk about a real PR job. Can you tell his staff is trying real hard to get him groomed for the crown by making him a man "of the people"? But they used San Francisco as a stand-in for London, where they no doubt fear he and his former mistress have yet to overcome the "Diana factor". Anyhow, I did notice right away on the photos accompanying the article that Chuck was wearing a standard-issue Cal alum tie, dark blue with a lattice of golden bear logos. The article made note of the same and mentioned that he received the tie as a gift during a previous trip to the Berkeley campus three decades ago. Nice touch, dear chap. Almost endears me to the British crown. Almost.

Vancouver, British Columbia

2005-09-10T21:30:00.000-07:00

The past couple of weeks, T and I had our first real vacation since our Paris honeymoon, a ten-day excursion to Vancouver and the various small islands off its coast. I say "excursion" with some purpose here. We wanted to "backpack" across the lower coastal area of British Columbia relying only on foot, ferries, and public transportation to get around. We even purchased a mountaineering-style pack for our trip and pared down all of our clothing and travel items to that one pack. Definitely a freeing experience, traveling on foot with only one backpack to worry about.

Terrorist Scare

2005-08-19T12:15:00.000-07:00

We had some drama early this morning in the San Francisco financial district. Apparently, there was a large explosion at the Crocker Galleria, a popular shopping arcade in the heart of the area. The blast was so large that it shook skyscrapers within a three to four block area. T phoned saying she could see smoke blowing downwind to the Citibank Center. While on the phone with her, I could hear the emergency sirens whizzing by our offices headed in that direction. Since a bomb could not be ruled out, all of the neighboring buildings were evacuated including Schwab's headquarters. Now that the smoke has cleared, literally and figuratively, it appears the blast may have been the product of a blown underground electrical transformer. Thank you PG&E for the Friday morning drama. With echoes of the recent London bombings, you could definitely sense the nervousness and anxiety on my floor and across the whole of the financial district. Here is a news account in the San Francisco Chronicle of the explosion (including a photo of the now burned and gutted Ralph Lauren store) (link): "...Among [the evacuees] was Tom McGibben, who works at Thomas Weisel Partners at 120 Kearny, which evacuated its employees. 'We saw the lights flicker at 9:50 a.m. We felt a pretty good shake. At first, we thought it was an earthquake. We saw smoke. The alarms in our building came on. At around the 20th floor you could smell something. At that point, we began to think it could be something worse than a quake. There were flashes to 9/11.' Tim Keenan, an employee at Charles Schwab, said he was evacuated from the 17th floor of the same building. 'I saw a flash of light. I looked out of the window. I saw people running and screaming,' he said. 'Our floor warden then asked people to begin to evacuate. To me, it sounded like a big boom of thunder.'" Hard to believe the fourth anniversary of 9/11 is just around the corner. Judging from the collective jitters felt throughout the financial district this morning, September 11, 2001 was apparently not that long ago.

Suisun Valley and Larry's Produce

2005-08-09T21:30:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, my parents pointed us to a hidden little pocket of the Suisun Valley, located on the eastern slopes of the mountain ridge dividing Solano and Napa counties. It's a real gem of a place with acres of working farms surrounding a dusty hamlet of matchstick community buildings. One building had an aging wooden sign above the front door with the words "Nissei Club" barely visible, evidence no doubt of the area's long history as a Japanese-American farming community. Our destination was a rustic but thriving roadside produce market, Larry's Produce, at the northern end of the valley. The seasonal selection was immense and the prices were incredibly cheap. Apparently, all of the produce is sourced within the valley and oftentimes on that date of sale. We purchased a large crate of fresh veggies and fruits for a meager twenty dollars. Definitely a well-kept secret amongst the locals here and in the neighboring wine country. I suspect more than a handful of the chefs in Napa come here to source their "locally-grown and seasonal" ingredients. If you're interested in an offbeat alternative to Napa or Sonoma, here is the Suisun Valley community website (link).

Crashing the Tour de Peninsula

2005-08-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

Needing a break from my studies, I convinced, or more aptly, suckered Wag into riding from my place in San Mateo, down the Mid-Peninsula through Woodside, Palo Alto, and the Stanford campus, all the way to downtown Los Altos. Early on, riding up Crystal Springs Road to the Half Moon Bay turnoff near I-280, we encountered a massive throng of riders. There must have been three to four hundred, all with race numbers tacked to their backs. It soon dawned on me that we were riding on the same day and for the most part, on the same route as the annual Tour de Peninsula (link). While the race organizers were busy distributing water to the racers, Wag and I snuck past the cones and into the mass of riders. Yep, we crashed the race. No, we weren't trying to pull a "Rosie Ruiz" (see here). Merely trying to avoid having to ride through a longer detour route. Unfortunately though, we jumped in at the worst possible spot, at the base of the dreaded climb up to Sawyer Camp Trail. A long brutal climb that gets steeper as you get further along. More than a handful of riders had to stop midway to take a breather. I was very close to being counted amongst the casualties. It only got harder from there. Two equally nasty climbs on the way up to the Canada Road approach. My upper legs were burning with lactic acid, my heart was pumping at full throttle, my lungs were panting for oxygen. The sweat from my brow was dissolving the sunscreen lotion into my now stinging eyes. Mental note, don't apply sunscreen to the forehead before a ride! With all the pain and effort, I still got a high from riding with so many cyclists around me. Maybe that's why marathoners get a performance boost on "race day". Group pressure. It definitely helped me through the toughest stretch of the route. The best part of the day was lounging on a chair in the shaded streetside cafe along Main Street in Los Altos on a pleasant Sunday afternoon. By then, I was numb to the pain.

Canada, Oh Canada!

2005-08-04T21:30:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago, I finally purchased my first road bicycle ever, an entry-level Raleigh Cadent (link). It wasn't cheap. But then again, the entire bike weighs less than my laptop bag. For the past couple of weeks, I have been cajoling T into riding with me along Crystal Springs Reservoir. Our first ride from San Mateo down to Woodside along Canada Road and the Reservoir was actually very pleasant (link). Sixteen miles roundtrip with moderate climbs, amazing scenery, and very light traffic. It's no wonder the route is popular with road cyclists. On weekends, Canada Road is a colorful parade of jerseys emblazoned with various corporate logos, all moving in unison in rapid pacelines. It's quite a sight. On reaching our destination in "downtown" Woodside, T and I planted ourselves in the parking lot at Roberts Market (link), the local cyclists' watering hole and rewarded our efforts with a hearty roast beef sandwich. Between that and the buckwheat flapjacks across the street at Buck's (link), we may be biking this route more regularly.

105 Degrees

2005-07-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, we drove out to see T's parents' newest home in Danville, Arizona... I mean, Danville, California. And while it's only forty minutes away, psychologically it seems a state away. This was only exacerbated by the extreme climate change. A pocket of dry arid heat that was sitting over the Tri-Valley area on Saturday. 105 degrees at midday. We got out of the nicely air-conditioned Subaru and the second we felt the rays, my skin began tingling. I had flashbacks to my childhood and the harsh summers of Northern Texas.

Best in Class

2005-06-24T12:15:00.000-07:00

Found this amusing article, "Best in Class", in the most recent issue of The New Yorker illustrating just how cut-throat competitive it is nowadays to become a high school valedictorian (article link here). Having been one myself, I can relate to many if not all of the issues discussed including whether it is fair or desirable to reward those who "game" the grade point system. However, in my case, because I and the other four "in contention" for the top award were all fairly close friends, having been in the same classes since primary or middle school, there was always a feeling of camaraderie present that trumped any need or desire to one-up each other. And it helped that our school district maintained a twelve-point GPA system (instead of the customary four-points) making ties less of an issue. Anyhow it seemed as if it was all for naught as the luster of being a valedictorian was soon wiped away; during the first day of freshman orientation at Berkeley's College of Engineering, the Dean asked for a show of hands asking how many had graduated at the top of their high school class. More than two-thirds raised their hands. Two-thirds! I still cringe at the thought. It was like a bucket of cold, wet reality thrown smack at our faces. In the span of a single summer break, we all went from being in the top one-tenth of one percent of our peer group to being simply "average". That was my first lesson as a wide-eyed freshman at Berkeley. Not a lesson in math, science, or engineering, but rather a lesson in life, of the value of being grounded and never taking yourself too seriously. That alone was worth one year of tuition.

Social Entrepreneurship

2005-06-19T23:50:00.000-07:00

For three months, I and about twenty fellow MBAs participated in an experimental seminar offered by the business school in conjunction with Silicon Valley's Tech Museum of Innovation (link). We were enlisted to apply our business knowledge for a select group of "social benefit enterprises", all of whom were chosen for the Tech's annual laureate award. "Social benefit enterprises" are a new breed of nonprofits, often aimed at the developing world, that rely on innovation and employ modern business techniques to achieve (1) self-sustainability through some profit-making activity and ultimately, (2) scalability to reach the most number of people with a nominal level of resources. It is revolutionary because of the importance placed on innovation both technological and process-based and on profits for the long-term mission of the organization. The field of social benefit enterprises or "social entrepreneurship" is cutting edge and is just now gaining traction. The b-school at Stanford is a pioneer in the field (link), as are a number of its alums including Jeff Skoll, one of the founders of eBay and now an active contributor to social benefit enterprises through his foundation (link). There is a very strong link between the Valley and the small community that is developing around the field. One reason is that they are oftentimes one and the same group. The more enlightened members of the generation that came into the Valley during the tech boom and became instantly wealthy are now searching for ways to use their money and their knowledge to make a difference in the world. But rather than revert to old-school "contributions", this new generation of donors is demanding results and greater accountability and have transferred their culture of venture capitalism and startups to the stodgy world of nonprofits introducing their standard toolkit of business plans, metrics, return on investment, strategic partnerships, and exit strategies. Our instructor for the course, Eric Carlson, is a prime example of this nexus. Besides being the longtime mayor of Los Gatos, a wealthy enclave in the Valley, he is very well-connected in the Valley having managed and led several established tech firms including a long stint at IBM Research; he, like a number of his peers, is now employing his expertise for the good of society through social entrepreneurship. One of his friends, Walt Jones, dropped by during the final week and advised us on fundraising. In his previous career, Dr. Jones helped found and lead GE's medical devices division for a number of years and was one of the highest ranking executives at GE by the time he retired. As a volunteer, he now heads fundraising for CityTeam Ministries (link), an organization that cares for the poor and homeless in major cities in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. Commendable and inspirational. It was a real pleasure getting to know both Dr. Carlson and for a brief moment, Dr. Jones. They helped me focus on the task at hand. My particular contribution to the seminar was to evaluate the business plan and funding proposal for Gram Vikas based in Orissa, India (link). For the past decade, Gram Vikas has been providing housing, clean water, and sanitation for hundreds of thousands of rural villagers in one of India's poorest regions. They are now launching a second initiative that seeks to reach a quarter of a million by 2009. Hope they get something out of my forty page report and presentation. I revamped their business plan and recommended some concrete steps they could take as an organization to ramp up their funding. During the course of the seminar, we learned quite a bit about some other notable social benefit enterprises including Ecosystems based in Kathmandu, Nepal (link) and Freeplay based in London and Capetown, South Africa (link). The former constructs wire bridges for peasants traveling between remote villages in the Himalayan mountains, and the latter distributes hand-crank powered radios to the poor children of southern Africa for receiving broadcasts of vital education and health-based programming. It would have been ideal to have included two organizations of personal interest, Unitus (link) and Greenstar (link), both based in Seattle. Unitus is involved in a promising subfield of social entrepreneurship called microfinance, essentially lending to the underserved in developing countries to promote private enterprise and self-empowerment. The high repayment and low default rates are quite amazing when you consider how poor and impoverished the loan recipients are in the urban slums or rural villages of the third world. Many get by on what is the equivalent of a few dollars a month. But the dignity that microlending instills in them produces the desire to make something of the loan and motivates them to stick to the repayment schedule. Amazing. Anyhow, I just heard that PBS will be airing later this month a special four-part series, The New Heroes, hosted by Robert Redford which introduces the field of social entrepreneurship to a larger audience by profiling the work of fourteen influential social innovators (link). Very sweet. And what timing. I'm looking forward to watching all four segments.

Heard the Word of Blog?

Paris, je t'aime

2005-06-19T21:30:00.000-07:00

Oui. Paris is and will always be our favorite city in Europe. One reason we chose it for our honeymoon destination. Grand, incredibly vibrant, always relevant, and genuinely foreign. The language, culture, architecture, food, all combine to imbue a "local color" that is truly unique and endearing. Anyone who sits in a streetside cafe along the Seine river on a clear day in Autumn, explores the crooked alleyways of historic Montmartre as the bells of the grand Basilica de Sacra Coeur ring in the distance, or dines for the requisite four hours within earshot of native Parisians arguing politics or literature, will no doubt agree. Don't get me wrong, London is great. But London, like much of the Commonwealth, is just a tad bit "familiar" to most English-speaking Americans, especially amongst Anglophiles like myself who have been raised on the BBC for more than twenty five years via PBS. It doesn't help matters that Brits love and embrace American culture and commerce; it's apparent on any random walk through central London where you can pass the same billboards and storefronts as you would find in New York or San Francisco. By contrast, Paris shuns such cultural and commercial dependencies. One of the reasons it holds a special place in most travelers' hearts. Rightfully so. And soon, there will be a cinematic tribute to this love of the City of Lights. A film project entitled Paris, je t'aime (link) is underway involving twenty well-regarded directors each assigned to one of the twenty districts (or arrondisements) of central Paris. Each director will be creating a five minute vignette that captures the essence of their respective arrondisement. The final product should be spectacular given the vastly different styles of the directors (e.g., Jean-Luc Godard, the Coen brothers, Alexander Payne, Gus Van Sant) and the respectable lineup of actors and actresses (e.g., Juliette Binoche, Natalie Portman, Willem Dafoe, Orlando Bloom) that have signed onto the project.

Field of Dreams

2005-06-16T11:30:00.000-07:00

Had a great evening with the equities and commodities traders from the floor who procured the Wells luxury box suite at the Oakland Coliseum for last night's Oakland A's-New York Mets game. There were fifteen of us in the room elevated just above the spectating "sweet spot" between home plate and first base. For the three hours we were there, the catering service kept busy replenishing the food and drink bar. We had a fridge full of premium beer and a side table stacked with a variety of hot and cold food including pulled pork barbeque sandwiches, steamed dimsum dumplings, large bratwurst sausages, and tasty steak fajitas. Now that I've experienced "first-class", I'm not sure I can go back to "sitting in coach". Sat for an inning next to the Executive Vice President for our business group. After seeing him stuff his face with jalapeno poppers and down a bottle of Hefeweizen, I definitely see him in a more human light. Definitely look forward to doing this again, possibly at SBC Park. And yes, the A's won 3-2 with the winning run coming off a dramatic bottom of the ninth, two-out hit by a player traded away during the offseason by the very same New York Mets (game recap).

Embrace the Good and the Bad

2005-06-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

While the Jobs speech (separate entry below) is quite serious and high-minded, this one given a while back by Conan O'Brien at his alma mater, Harvard, is decidedly less so (link here). But once you get past the humor and lightheartedness, he does share a nugget that is infinitely more practical and useful to those listening, about the value of taking the good with the bad, of accepting that failure and success go hand in hand, and of not being timid for fear of failure or rejection. In other words, "don't be afraid to fail because failure is a normal part of the process" and "don't be handcuffed by success if you're ready to move on with life even if it means leaving the comfort and safety of the 'cocoon'": I've dwelled on my failures today because, as graduates of Harvard, your biggest liability is your need to succeed. Your need to always find yourself on the sweet side of the bell curve. Because success is a lot like a bright, white tuxedo. You feel terrific when you get it, but then you're desperately afraid of getting it dirty, of spoiling it in any way. I left the cocoon of Harvard, I left the cocoon of Saturday Night Live, I left the cocoon of The Simpsons. And each time it was bruising and tumultuous. And yet, every failure was freeing, and today I'm as nostalgic for the bad as I am for the good.

Find What You Love

2005-06-12T21:30:00.000-07:00

With the buzz of university graduations around this month every year, there is typically a handful of commencement speeches that get some notice usually because of the celebrity or cult status of the speaker. This year, it was Steve Jobs' speech at the Stanford commencement (link here). Thought it strange and ironic that a college dropout would be asked to speak at a graduation ceremony, at Stanford no less, but then again, he is Steve Jobs, founder of two of the hottest companies around, Apple and Pixar, he is a billionaire, and he conveniently lives just a few miles down the road in Woodside. His speech was not your typical feel good kind of message; rather, it was a cold bucket of reality with the central message being "you're going to die, so find what is important to you and live life your way": When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that your are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes. This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Destination: Portland, Oregon

2005-06-05T21:30:00.000-07:00

For the Memorial Day weekend, T and I, with parents in tow, drove up Interstate 5 all the way to Portland with stops along the way in Lake Shasta, Ashland (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Eugene (University of Oregon), and various points along the scenic coast including the sandy beach stretch of Lincoln City and the New England-style fishing town of Newport. While our stay in Portland was short, we did manage to visit a number of interesting places including two that we enjoyed on our last trip, the vibrant 23rd Street neighborhood and the Classical Chinese Garden. My favorite memory of the trip was the amazing Sunday brunch we all had at the historic lodge overlooking dramatic Multnomah Falls and the Columbia River Gorge (link here). Great food, one-of-a-kind scenery, and perfect weather. Definitely one of the best brunches ever.

Saving Spiderman

2005-05-09T10:10:00.000-07:00

On a whim, this past Saturday, I took us for a long drive south down Foothill Boulevard from its northern terminus on Page Mill Road in Palo Alto to the very southern end in Cupertino where it becomes a small two lane byway that runs alongside Stevens Creek reservoir. The trail winds up over the mountains and then down into a deep, forested other-world where you drive just a few feet away from an idyllic gurgling stream and tall redwoods. On a tight switchback deep in the valley, we noticed a downed motorcycle in a shallow ditch at the edge of the curve and a visibly shaken motorcyclist trying to get up. The remoteness of the locale and the fact that we had not spotted another vehicle on the road for several miles, T thought we should stop and assist. Me being the resident non-samaritan, argued against it. Well, in my head at least. We backed up and I got out of the car to help the cyclist lift his bike out of the ravine. Using all of our might, we lifted it up and motored it out. The cyclist finally took off his helmet and for a good half minute, I stared in disbelief. It was Toby Maguire in the flesh. Yeh, that Toby Maguire. Or someone that looked a whole hell of a lot like him. His brother perhaps? The loud sputter of his engine snapped me out of my celebrity trance. As I got back in the car, he thanked us profusely for our assistance. The entire drive back, I was thinking about how we saved Spiderman that afternoon. Anyhow, the impromptu daytrip was full of other unexpected discoveries including a pleasant walk along the commercial hearts of Los Altos and the charming hamlet of Saratoga. The latter was especially picturesque. The town sits comfortably between the sloping mountainside and the flat valley and is perched above an active creek. The shops and eateries are clearly first rate and quite impressive in appearance and manner. We will definitely have to make a return visit and try one of the restaurants sometime. Everytime I think I know the Bay Area, random drives like this confirm otherwise.

There Goes the Neighborhood...

2005-05-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

Arianna Huffington's new weblog (link here) pools together individual blog postings from a number of well-known political and social commentators, e.g., Arthur Schlesinger and Jim Pinkerton, as well as some interesting "teaser" postings from non-politicos, including actor John Cusack, director Mike Nichols, playwright David Mamet, and comedy writer Harry Shearer. Unbelievable who's blogging these days. Julia Louis-Dreyfus? Oye.

Mr. and Mrs. Bussey

2005-05-08T19:15:00.000-07:00

My cousin Sandy and her new husband Greg were married a week ago at the lovely Perkin's Chapel at Southern Methodist University in Dallas (link) and held their reception at my uncle and aunt's country club, Brookhaven (link). My mother, "the family representative", was quite impressed with the ceremony. Kudos to the newlyweds.

The Scrum and the Scrumptious

2005-05-05T14:30:00.000-07:00

First, the "scrum". This past Saturday, we made it down to the final match of the 2005 National Collegiate Rugby Championships, this year being held at Steuber Rugby Field on the Stanford campus. For those uninitiated into the world of college rugby, one thing should be made quite clear. Cal dominates it and has dominated it for quite a while now. They have won the national title twenty one of the twenty six years it has been in place. And they almost always win convincingly. Case in point, Saturday's title game against the University of Utah. Final score 44-7 (link here). Wasn't even close. We noticed the turnout was substantially greater than the 2003 tournament where T and I had choice seats, front row in fact, at Witter Field in Berkeley where we saw Cal manhandle Navy. The Cal rugby team has had a number of moments in the national spotlight including a few not at all tied to its play on the field. A starting member of its 1991 and 1993 national championship teams, Mark Bingham died on the hijacked United Airlines flight that went down in the Pennsylvania countryside on 9/11; he led the group of passengers that rushed the cockpit and foiled the hijackers plans to crash the plane into the Capitol Building. Representing the Congress men and women that would have been sure victims of the plan, Senator John McCain later delivered Bingham's eulogy: "I know he was a good son and friend, a good rugby player, a good American and an extraordinary human being. He supported me, and his support now ranks among the greatest honors of my life. I wish I had known before Sept. 11 just how great an honor his trust in me was." Not at all surprising that Bingham would use his tackling abilities for the good of others. His previous claim to fame (well known to all true Blues) was as the ardent Cal fan who ran onto the field during the 1992 Big Game and leveled the Tree, Stanford's obnoxious mascot. Bingham was a true patriot, red, white, and blue throughout...just a little less red and a lot more blue, for those in the know. Another national headline grabber for the Cal squad was during the 2001 season when Stanford forfeited its game with the Bears for "fear of injury" (link here). Yes, the team actually wrote a letter to Cal coach Jack Clark bowing out of the game for fear that there would be too many injuries to their side. The sports media had a field day with that one. And to the delight of Cal fans everywhere, Stanford ruggers will have to live with that shame forever. As for me, It's been quite a while since I put on my cleats, but each time now watching a game in person, there's a strong itch to get back into it. Playing on Jeremy Howell's intramural team in college (in the key position of hooker or center man in the scrum) and also, during my stint in New York, practicing with the Village Lions RFC (link) in lower Manhattan were both very memorable experiences. Anyhow, that's it for the "scrum" part of the program. Now on to the "scrumptious". T and I had the chance, finally, to drop in at Buck's restaurant in bucolic Woodside (link), where I eagerly feasted on their trademark buckwheat flapjacks. Verdict? Worth every ounce of the hype. Their food is first rate and the wacky decor will keep you entertained, if not guessing (in our booth alone, I noted a mannequin in a genuine Russian cosmonaut suit hanging from the ceiling, an actual photo of former Israeli leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres posing behind his plate of pancakes at Buck's, and some hard to find tchotchkes including a homage to Homer Simpson coveting a pile of donuts). Buck's will definitely be our new "breakfast place" on the Peninsula.

The Big Eye in the Sky (Update)

2005-04-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

It was just a matter of time. A handful of bloggers have posted some very amusing images from Google Maps Satellite, including an overview of the homes of Bill Gates and Michael Dell, the customary (Alcatraz, St. Louis Arch, White House, Mount Rushmore, etc.) and not so customary (Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch and the Heaven's Gate Cult Mansion) landmarks strewn across the country, and the occasional snapshot of a commercial plane taking off from the airport or, in one of the posts, a small twin-prop plane making an emergency landing on an interstate highway. Here are just a few of the links (here, here, and here). Enjoy.

Windermere-Stanford Crew Classic

2005-04-11T14:30:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, T and I made it out to the inner waterways of Redwood Shores to watch the third annual Windermere-Stanford Crew Classic (link here), purportedly the largest rowing competition on the west coast. The field included all of the top collegiate and club-level teams in various classes (men's varsity eight, women's varsity eight, lightweight, junior varsity, freshmen) and included defending national champions Cal (link), Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Virginia, Washington, Michigan, Wisconsin, Texas, and Stanford. Watching the Henley-style races along the banks of the waterway, just yards from the passing rowers was intense. You could hear the coxswains barking, the oars cutting the air, the seats gliding on their tracks, and the rowers exhaling. While not yet as large a spectator event as the Head of the Charles in Cambridge, Mass. (link), the annual competition will become much more visible in the coming years, for sure. And yes, the Cal men's varsity eight won the men's title (link). Also found out an interesting tidbit. T's aunt was once the coxswain on the Seoul National University collegiate team. That would explain her aunt's unusually high energy level.

The Big Eye in the Sky

2005-04-08T10:45:00.000-07:00

Revolutionary. Google Maps not only provides a traditional online map of any location you input, it now offers detailed satellite photograph images of that same location, in varying degrees of detail. You can input your home address and find a clear satellite image of your roof, your backyard, the street, the trees, neighboring houses, and occasionally even stray people or pets! And you can scroll the image in any direction and also, zoom in and out. Imagine inputting any address and having an actual bird's eye photographic image of that location in seconds. A restaurant in Napa Valley, a cafe in Palo Alto, an office building in San Francisco, the Berkeley campus, a post office in Oakland, the tea garden at Golden Gate Park, the ferry station on Angel Island, the Northstar ski lifts at Lake Tahoe, Larry Ellison's medieval Japanese compound in Woodside... ad infinitem. Without getting into the thorny and inevitable matters of privacy and security, I have to say this will be my new toy for the next few days. Here is our home on Crystal Springs Road as seen via the "satellite" option in Google Maps (link here). And here is the Sawyer Camp Trail part of Crystal Springs reservoir (link here).

Biking Crystal Springs

2005-04-04T12:30:00.000-07:00

The past two weekends, T and I have been setting aside some time on Saturday mornings to bike along the six-mile path that runs alongside the lower Crystal Springs reservoir from San Mateo through Hillsborough to the northern end of Burlingame. Each time, the weather has been spectacular. Mild with a gentle breeze from the ocean winds blowing over the hills on the other end of the reservoir. This past weekend, we made it to the end of the trail, a wonderful spot at the rim of a tall dyke with views of the reservoir stretching the entire length south to Palo Alto and north a short ways up to the high cliffs of Pacifica. And on the ride back to the trailhead, we came across some young deer feeding along the edge of the path. This has to be one of the best parts about living on Crystal Springs Road, the "backyard" of scenic and expansive greenspace.

Winter Wonderland

2005-03-25T16:00:00.000-08:00

Snow, more snow, even more snow… one feet of accumulation, two feet, three, four… on and on it went. This past week, T and I enjoyed a weeklong vacation up in our hideaway on the northshore of Lake Tahoe. The view from our nest was spectacular. The crystal blue of the lake with its ocean-sized waves lapping up onto the beachside, the snow capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the background, and the unending downpour of snow. On our third day, the neighboring children created a makeshift sled run on the natural slope behind our unit. Imagine the entire world around you turning various shades of white. The sky, the mountains, the trees, the dwellings, the ground... everything really. It was amazing. Very much like a dream or a wintry trance. During our weeklong stay, we managed to leave our comfortable roost to hit the customary eateries that have made our trips to King’s Beach so memorable. Old Range Steakhouse for their large-portioned steaks (my vote for the best kept secret on the northshore), Hiro’s Sushi for the most authentic sushi in Northern California (the second best kept secret), Sancho’s for their tasty fish tacos, and Charpit for that late night burger fix. We also had the opportunity to try a few new places including The Log Cabin Café for brunch, Tantara Bakery and Café in the new Squaw Village for an awesome breakfast, and Dragonfly in downtown Truckee for some delicious Cal-Asian fusion dishes like panko-breaded fish and chips. All are highly recommended. The vacation retreat was much needed, allowing us to de-tox and recharge our batteries at least until our next vacation in late summer, early fall. And thankfully, I finally had the chance to finish some of my pleasure reading and catch up on the first two seasons of MI-5 on DVD (an early birthday gift from T). Overall, a wonderful experience.

I (Heart) Powerpoint

2005-03-11T11:00:00.000-08:00

Working within the marketing group of a large corporation, I come across Powerpoint presentations all the time, sometimes two to three times daily. Internal presentations to management. External presentations to potential partners or clients. Anything that requires focused communication or more aptly put, "a quick and dirty". Why should senior managers have to waste precious time reading a long-winded tome when a simple one page bulleted summary will suffice? Or so the conventional thinking goes. Regardless, in the span of a mere decade, Powerpoint has become the ubiquitous tool of modern business and is now the primary method of formal management communications taught in every MBA program worldwide. My project groups in the MBA program rely on it almost exclusively for our presentations. But Powerpoint has also been the target of considerable criticism for the very reasons that contributed to its success, namely its simplicity. Critics like Edward Tufte at Yale have blasted its emphasis on form over substance (see Powerpoint is Evil, link here). But recently, an unlikely person has come to Powerpoint's defense. David Byrne, former lead singer of the Talking Heads, has been crowing about the use of Powerpoint as a medium of art. Apparently, he made his "pitch" a couple of days ago to an audience on the Berkeley campus (link here). Lecture, performance art, and tongue-in-cheek commentary all rolled up into one gloriously strange and hilarious hourlong presentation. According to the article, the original two creators of Powerpoint, both Cal graduates apparently, were in the audience, laughing along with the others.

The Gettysburg Address (as a Powerpoint Presentation)

2005-03-11T10:59:00.000-08:00

Google "technologist" Peter Norvig parodied Powerpoint by presenting Abraham Lincoln's well-known Gettysburg Address using a Powerpoint slide presentation (link here). Clever.

The Christian Scientist

2005-03-09T12:50:00.000-08:00

Apparently, one of the world's preeminent physicists is also an ardent and outspoken Christian. And a Berkeley professor to boot. The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that Charles Townes, a long time professor of physics at Berkeley and co-inventor of the laser and the maser for which he won a Nobel Prize, was just awarded the $1.5 million Templeton Prize, known as the world's richest annual prize, for his lifelong attempts to reconcile science and religion (link here and here). One excerpt from the article: "Townes said that, with findings of modern physics, it 'seems extremely unlikely' that the existence of life and humanity are 'just accidental,' which inevitably raises religious questions about whether the universe was planned." He plans to donate the vast majority of the prize to a handful of local religious and charitable organizations including the First Congregational Church of Berkeley and the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. Inspiring life to say the least. The seemingly futile issue of reconciling science and religion is strangely reminiscent of the assumption, taught to me in my sophomore physics class at Berkeley, that is made in quantum physics that at the atomic level, all things are both particles and waves (i.e., in science speak, "simultaneously exhibiting localized and distributed properties"). The "duality principle" of quantum theory is ultimately an act of faith made by physicists since it has never been observed or proven in an experiment. Ironic that the same scientists who blast their Christian peers including Townes for their unscientific beliefs are the same ones who oftentimes make similar "leaps of faith" in science that defy observation or even logic.

Montgomery Ward Revisited

2005-03-08T11:45:00.000-08:00

The Troutgirl blog has some amusing snipets about all things Korean: "Q: How does a Korean-American pronounce the words 'Caesar', 'seizure', and 'scissors'? A: Shija, shija, shija."; "Q: Why is Korean toilet paper wide? A: Because it's hyu-ji."; "Margaret Cho recounting a phone call from her mother in thick Korean-accented English: 'Two things. Number one, grandma-grandpa gonna die. Not today, not tomorrow -- but they gonna die. And number two, did you get da shampoo I sent you?'"; "My brother telling me about a Korean movie: 'It was the archetypal Korean movie, all about a guy who falls in love with a girl who he can't marry.' Me: 'If it was the typical Korean movie, wouldn't it be all about his parents telling him he isn't studying hard enough?' My brother: 'Of course it's about that too.'"; "My Uncle Kim asked me recently, 'So, did you see that new movie? The, the, Mattress?' I looked at him and thought for a moment. 'Oh, no-no, it's not Mattress,' I replied, 'It's Mattress Reloaded'."

Tea'd Off

2005-03-07T15:30:00.000-08:00

Very entertaining account of a confrontation between a waiter and two patrons over some "missing" tea bags (Tea Nazi entry, link here). Tough life being a waiter in New York.

Sunday Brunch

2005-03-06T22:30:00.000-08:00

After a long unintended drive through the City and a palpable sense that the other passengers in the car were about to incite a Bounty-like mutiny against yours truly, we stopped for brunch at a place that T and I had been wanting to try for some time, The Magic Flute (link here) in the Presidio Heights area. While the food was a tad overpriced, brunching on their elegant back patio on a warm sunny afternoon more than made up for it. The weather on this particular Sunday was spectacular. Anyhow, their chicken hash and eggs accompanied by an Arnold Palmer (iced tea with lemonade) was definitely a welcome reprieve from my extreme beef overdose from the previous evening. On Saturday night, I had downed a "Sloppy Jose" sandwich (a standard sloppy Joe but with some taco seasoning thrown into the mix) at the Peninsula Fountain & Grill in Palo Alto and quickly followed it up with some sauce-drenched roast beef sandwiches at the Menlo Park Arby's. A bit much? Thomas Jefferson once declared that a revolution every now and then is a good and necessary thing. Just replace "revolution" with "chopped beef sandwich binge" and I would agree wholeheartedly. Anyhow, I didn't have too much to fear as Stanford Hospital (link here), with its excellent cardiology department, was a stone's throw away.

Jeannie's Wedding

2005-03-04T15:30:00.000-08:00

Flew down to Los Angeles for J & J's wedding on the weekend of the 26th. Both the rehearsal dinner and the wedding were held in the heart of Koreatown. Happy to report the ceremony went off without a hitch and the newlyweds are off happily honeymooning in Maui. Phew. One more wedding off the list. During trips down to the Southland, I always enjoy a visit to the Koreatown Galleria (link here) and its bustling food court on the top floor of the multi-level mall, presumably located so that the wafting odor of kimchi jjigeh floats safely above the delicate cashmere and silk garments on display in the boutiques below. The concept of blending the uniquely modern American fixture that is the mall food court with a decidedly Korean panoply of dishes and snacks is quite the spectacle. The steaming and pungent pots of soups, stews, and noodle dishes coupled with the bustling noises common to any food court combine to create an experience truly embodying the notion of the hyphenated Korean-American community. During our swing through the gargantuan supermarket on the ground floor, we also came across what was apparently the only American branch of Howondang, an exclusive high-end purveyor of traditional Korean pastries and rice cakes (link here and photos here). Their care in packaging small bite-sized delicacies reminded me of the same care and reverence exhibited by the pastry staff at Fauchon (link here) off the Place de la Madeleine in Paris. During our honeymoon last November, T and I wanted a quick snack during our walk through the food hall at Fauchon. We pointed to a miniature eclair coated in a festive neon-orange-colored icing. The attendant then grabbed the eclair delicately, almost reverently, with a special pair of tongs and then proceeded to wrap the morsel in three layers of packaging with the final step being placing it in an ornate gift box complete with a silk ribbon. The ritual of opening the gift box elevated what would have been an otherwise mundane act of downing an afternoon snack. Places like Howondang and Fauchon are rare pleasures.

Carmel-by-the-Sea

2005-02-22T14:30:00.000-08:00

Took a day trip down to Carmel (link here) to enjoy the food and shops along Ocean Avenue, including an afternoon tea at The Tuck Box (link here and here). The torrential rainstorm up and down the Monterey Peninsula that day gave the scenery a surreal, almost dreamlike quality. This was especially true during a stop along the 17-Mile Drive (link here) near the dramatic Par 3 5th Hole at Spyglass Hill that sits atop the sea cliff and is bifurcated by a cove where the violent waves of the Pacific Ocean crash below. The blend of strong winds, blinding rain, blanketing fog, and rugged, coastal beauty are reminiscent of the picture book coasts of Scotland; no wonder golf is considered their other national religion.

Napa Weekend

2005-02-17T10:55:00.000-08:00

To celebrate our first Valentine's as a married couple, T and I ventured out to Napa Valley this past Saturday. One of the high points, both literally and figuratively, was our visit to the Sterling winery, situated almost entirely on the summit of a tall knoll, located halfway between St. Helena and Calistoga (link here). To get to the winery at the top, visitors must travel by aerial tram, much like the gondolas you find at ski resorts. Ours was a cozy two-seater and the views of the valley and the fountains below were picturesque. The ride back down was especially nice as the setting sun was bathing the entire panorama in a lush, deep orange hue. Almost as memorable as the garlic fries at Taylor's Refresher a few miles down the road.

Gizoogle

2005-02-17T10:45:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder what would happen if you crossed Google with MTV's Pimp My Ride or Cribs? No? Well now you can... with Gizoogle (link here). Hilarious. The spinning rims on the header are too precious. Just for fun, I did a search of "John Ashcroft", former Attorney General and leading proponent of the U.S. Patriot Act. Gizoogle churned out: "Attorney General John Ashcroft . Boo-Yaa!. Call'n him a dawg of bootylicious integrity", "Jizzle Ashcroft crazy up in here. Much like tha Nazis in Casablizzles John Ashcroft enjoys a good song - as long as thugz rememba they place", and "Smizzay tha satire. Freak y'all, into the beat y'all. A picture of Jizzay Ashcroft's face, made entirely of shawty P-to-tha-izzorn people: J-to-tha-izzohn Ashcroft n sh-t. Yes, Jizzy Ashcroft is going pimp porn yeah yeah baby. All pizzy." Call it "Googlebonics" for the internet age.

Virtual Reality

2005-02-16T14:30:00.000-08:00

Read in the San Francisco Chronicle about the following incident that happened this morning: "BART is experiencing a computer glitch and other technical difficulties this morning at a number of stations, causing lengthy delays throughout the Bay Area that have stymied the morning commute. A computer at the Embarcadero station saw a 'ghost train' at 7:30 a.m., requiring operators to drive their trains manually at no more than 25 mph, rather than the normal 70 mph, said Jim Allison, a spokesman for the transit agency. That created a backup in the Transbay Tube that saw as many as eight trains inside the tunnel at one time. That slowed the entire system to a crawl, and by 11 a.m. trains headed to the East Bay from San Francisco were still being delayed by 15 minutes." Say again? Did I read that right? "Ghost train"? This should be more than a little frightening to anyone who relies on public transportation systems (and this includes air traffic control systems). Phantom objects showing up on critical systems affecting the safety of hundreds of thousands... yikes. Eerily reminiscent of the closing scenes from the movie Wargames (link) in which the two protagonists (played by Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy), along with the entire war room at NORAD, watch in horror as the large screens display what everyone believes is a nuclear holocaust; but later turns out to have been a self-generated computer simulation involving phantom intercontinental ballistic missiles. Wonder if someone hacked into the BART system much like the Broderick character in Wargames. Or maybe the BART system simply runs on Microsoft XP... that would explain a lot.

"Housing Bubblette"

2005-02-14T11:40:00.000-08:00

Interesting article (link here). And yet more evidence of the rising bubblette (link here). PMI Group, the leading mortgage insurer, recently published its 2005 Risk Index (Wall Street Journal link, subscription req'd). It listed the San Francisco Bay Area as one of the top three riskiest areas in the country for potential home price declines. PMI calculates the Bay Area as having a risk index of 479. In other words, there is a 47.9% chance of significant housing price declines within the next two years. That compares to a national risk index average of 161.

The Pen is Mightier than the (Horde)

2005-02-14T11:30:00.000-08:00

... horde of marketing, public relations, and corporate communications staffs that is. This article in The Economist (link here) about the weblogging of Robert Scoble, who otherwise works at Microsoft and holds the revealing title of "Tech Evangelist", demonstrates the power and potential of blogs to influence others. In the case of a large, impersonal, and broadly disliked corporation like Microsoft, the ability to reach out to a small but highly influential group of outside software developers. If a blog can persuade and occasionally even convert erstwhile anti-Microsoft zealots, then anything is possible in the new digital world.

"Somewhat Right"... Me or the Test?

2005-02-09T15:30:00.000-08:00

According to the following test (link here), I am a "liberal Republican", somewhat right of center. The political figure I most exemplify is former federal prosecutor and former mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani. The conclusion read: "When you tell people that you're Republican, they rarely believe you. That's because you're socially liberal - likely pro-choice and pro-gay rights. You're also not so afraid of big government, as long as it benefits people and not politicians. You are the most likely of any Republican type to swing over to the Democrat side sometimes." Hmm. I would have guessed "Libertarian" and disagree with the conclusion that I might tolerate "big government". Government should be limited to a very few necessary activities. Generally, government should serve only to monitor (and occasionally intervene in) the free markets and the free exchange of ideas when that underlying freedom is threatened - for example, price-fixing or other anticompetitive behavior in commerce or when one group suppresses the rights of another group in civil society. Government should also not be in the business of economic redistribution; it's role should be limited to ensuring that the poorest and most vulnerable are taken care of and protected. And I'm not really "pro" gay rights. I just don't believe in the legitimacy of the government to interfere in a person's private life. Maybe having graduated from Berkeley, having interned in the California State Legislature, and having lived in Northern California have softened the knee-jerk Bible-belt conservative values that were the product of my upbringing in suburban Dallas. But I am still a card carrying member of the Republican party... and having lived in a cleaner, safer, and more economically robust Manhattan during his "reign", I am an admirer of Rudy Giuliani and his past achievements. So the test did get two things right.

Google Maps

2005-02-07T13:30:00.000-08:00

Google Maps is my new online toy... the level of detail in the graphics and the added search features are simply amazing. Light years ahead of Yahoo! Maps and MapQuest. Give it a whirl (link here).

The Doctor is "In"...

2005-02-04T13:45:00.000-08:00

Update: Wagboy advises only going to the link for the test if you have adequate virus software installed as there may be a virus attached to the site... Amusing. Ever wonder which Peanuts character you most exemplify? Here's a quick test (link here). Having actually played Schroeder, the antisocial pianist, in a grade school play, and also having worn a Charlie Brown outfit to a number of Halloween outings during my childhood, I was more than a little disappointed that my result was "Lucy". Great. They should really have a gender filter for the test. I still secretly strive to be more like Lucy's younger brother, Linus, the child-philosopher who steadfastly holds to his belief that the Great Pumpkin will come (a clear reference to the Christian faith) but remains prone to thumbsucking and carrying his security blanket (link to his own human nature). In the Christmas special, Linus was the only one that saw past the commercialism and secularism of Christmas, to the one true meaning of that day. Good stuff. Anyhow, guess Lucy will have to do for now. Could have been worse... e.g., "Peppermint Patty", "Marcy", "Pigpen", "Farmer Snoopy"... T and I really should revisit the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa (link here). We were actually there for the opening ceremony back in 2002.

In Memoriam: Philip Johnson

2005-01-26T14:30:00.000-08:00

Philip Johnson, arguably the most influential American architect of the second half of the twentieth century (Frank Lloyd Wright being the most influential during the first half), died yesterday at the age of 98 (New York Times obituary here). His body of work is immense. The ones that have been a backdrop to my own personal life include, in Manhattan, the Museum of Modern Art (the sculpture garden in particular)(here), the AT&T Building with its elegant Chippendale top (here), the Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building (here), and in Texas, nearly every signature skyscraper in Dallas and Houston including Bank One Center (here), NCNB Center/Pennzoil Place and Transco Tower (here). Not to mention other Dallas/Fort Worth area landmarks like the John F. Kennedy Memorial (here), Thanksgiving Square (here), Amon Carter Museum (here), and Fort Worth Water Gardens (here). The Four Seasons Restaurant (site here), not to be confused with the hotel and resort chain, is a Park Avenue establishment (here) and happens to be a personal favorite for the occasional New York dining splurge. One of the few places that displays a genuine Picasso tapestry along with several Miros and Lichtensteins in its dining room. On our first trip out to New York together, T and I made a point of enjoying a dinner in the legendary Pool Room. The meal and the experience will stay with us for a very long time. This includes our server's surprise treat of an amazing mushroom consomme as well as his knowledgeable instructions on how to get to the Met at Lincoln Center in less than fifteen minutes by avoiding the evening crosstown traffic. That particular evening, we sat across from Andy Rooney, the essayist of 60 Minutes fame, engaging in a very animated conversation with a woman half his age. Hmm. Never a dull moment in Manhattan. As a bit of film trivia, the Seagram Building and the low key facade of the Four Seasons were used as the backdrop of a notable scene between Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's. In many ways, Philip Johnson has also been a "set designer" for the play that is my life.

During a Layover in "Lay" Country

2005-01-20T15:30:00.000-08:00

Just read about the upcoming premiere at the Sundance film festival of the new documentary, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, based on the book of the same name (link here). Last November, during a brief layover in the Houston airport on the way to our honeymoon destination, I searched the bookstands for an "easy read" for the eleven hour leg of our flight from Texas to France. The Enron book caught my eye in an instant. The irony was too compelling. A book about Enron, once the most high profile, fastest growing, and politically connected energy company in Houston, being prominently displayed and sold in the George H.W. Bush Intercontinental Airport in that very same town not long after its epic collapse. I began reading my newly purchased copy soon after take off from Bush airport and was nearly halfway done by the time we landed at Charles de Gaulle in Paris. Truth is stranger and oftentimes, more interesting than fiction. The Enron saga had it all. A true rags to riches story in the form of Kenneth Lay, the founder and longtime chief executive of Enron, who grew up in rural Missouri to a dirt poor family that barely managed to stay housed and fed. Love, hate, power, politics, betrayal, infidelity, ambition, greed, arrogance, deception, fraud, and near the end, a dramatic suicide. Danielle Steele could not have imagined a wilder story for one of her novels. Just hope the soon-to-be-released film is as interesting as the book's account of Enron and its litany of characters.

The Big Six-O

2005-01-19T21:30:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, we celebrated T's mother's sixtieth birthday at the Duck Club in Lafayette (link here). A very nice dinner for a very deserving mother. Koreans traditionally celebrate two birthdays above all others, the first and sixtieth. In earlier times, reaching the age of sixty was quite an accomplishment with average life expectancy hovering somewhere in the fifties. But why the number sixty? Any symbolic meaning? Here is Wikipedia's response to the search request "number 60": (1) in the measurement of time, the number of seconds in a minute, and the number of minutes in an hour; (2) in geometry, the number of seconds in a minute, and the number of minutes in a degree; (3) a common speed limit, in miles per hour, for freeways in many US states; (4) in years of marriage, the diamond wedding anniversary; (5) the maximum number of marbles (game pieces) in Chinese checkers. The last entry was an intriguing possibility. One could humorously proclaim, "I reached sixty and haven't lost any of my marbles". A more plausible explanation for the symbolic importance of sixty may involve the Chinese sexagesimal cycle (link here). Anyhow, three parents down, just one more to go.

Art Alfresco

2005-01-05T14:35:00.000-08:00

Apparently, the Chairman of the Board of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has a weekend home in Geyserville, a stone's throw from Chateau Souverain, where he and his wife collect unique, commissioned works of art, primarily large scale pieces of outdoor sculpture (article here). Loved the part about one of the Richard Serra pieces being so heavy that during its trip down from Seattle to Geyserville, three bridges had to be structurally reinforced to accommodate the load. The Oliver Ranch is a mirror of its neighbor to the east in Napa County, di Rosa Preserve (link here). The wine country must have quite a few of these private collections. During a college camping trip to Big Sur with friends, we stumbled across a private sculpture garden in someone's backyard and it was quite an experience. Large colorful contortions of steel sitting alongside the gurgling stream as the steep, fog-encased hills of Big Sur enclosed us in a natural outdoor gallery. It was the perfect "space" for viewing the art. Sadly, we couldn't enjoy the experience for too long. While wading across the stream in knee deep water, Kuangkai slipped on the riverbed. One of his sneakers came loose and began drifting downstream. Needless to say, a long, comic chase involving eight campers ensued.

Mandu Madness

2005-01-03T13:05:00.000-08:00

Following Korean tradition, we were fed a thin beef broth-based soup of rice cakes and mandu (meat and vegetable filled dumplings) at my parents' home on Saturday morning. And again at T's parents' on Saturday evening. I must have downed at least thirty of the hearty dumplings over a six hour period. Definitely mandu overkill. But they were tasty and quite addictive. Whenever I think of Korean food nowadays, the following weblog comes to mind (link here). It was recommended to T by a friend of a friend who is an avowed "foodie". The weblogger, an expat working on a project in Seoul, is writing about his various food experiences in the city. His accompanying photos really bring the dishes alive. Literally alive in the case of the nakji (miniature octopus). On a somewhat related sidenote, while stopping at the Andronicos market in Danville, a few streets down from T's parents' home, I perused the wine section and happily found a whopping six different varieties of Chateau Souverain wine. They even carried the Zin.

Won by a Nose (a Nosetackle that is)

2005-01-03T11:30:00.000-08:00

And the final tallies are in for our fantasy football league... Dong 1,764 pts, Jeff 1,839 pts, John 1,840 pts (the other six teams all finished below 1,700 and were clearly out of contention in the final week). After seventeen weeks of competitive trash talking, I won by a single point. Thanks to some remarkable play by Larry Johnson, Curtis Martin, and the Bills defense. By far, the closest finish in the history of Sal's numerous fantasy football leagues. With the victory, Texan pride remains intact. Definitely a nice way to ring in the new year.

Passport to the New Year

2004-12-31T10:45:00.000-08:00

Each year involves a new adventure, a need to quench the inner wanderlust. 2003 was about London. Twice in fact, with a short side journey the second time around to dramatic Edinburgh. 2004 was about Paris. The first time as a couple. The amazing balcony view from our hotel room will forever be etched in my memory of that trip, as will our boat cruise up the river Seine on a chilly winter evening. I recently stumbled across this website by another adventuresome couple that recaps one of their days in the City of Lights (link here). Heartened to see they recommended one of "our" restaurants, Le Trumilou, along the quay near the Hotel de Ville. I can still taste the grilled whole fish with sauce. Mmm. T and I will have to do Paris again very soon. What will 2005 hold for us as travelers? We'll have to see how things unfold, but Korea will definitely be in the mix.

New Year, New Look

2004-12-30T11:15:00.000-08:00

In celebration of the coming new year, thought it appropriate to revamp the look of the weblog, so voila, here it is...

Fantasy Football Finals

2004-12-30T11:10:00.000-08:00

We're approaching the last week of the regular season of the NFL. Normally, this wouldn't be an item of note on my calendar since I'm not really a diehard professional football fan. My heart is really in the college game and has been ever since my freshman year at Berkeley. Fitting, with Cal slated to play in its second straight postseason bowl game less than six hours from now (Holiday Bowl, ESPN, 5pm PST). But this season, Sal and some of my other colleagues at Wells convinced me to throw in my twenty dollars and more importantly, my reputation as a proud Texas native to join their fantasy football league. So for an agonizingly long sixteen weeks now, I and eight others have been researching players, watching countless games, negotiating trades with other members, and through it all, consistently trash talking our beaten foes on Monday mornings. For those not in the know about fantasy sports, it's a large, multi-million dollar industry involving every major media outlet in print, broadcast, and the internet. It has contributed to making ESPN the highest revenue-generating cable station in history. Just about every male between the ages of 18 and 45 either plays or knows someone who plays one of the fantasy sports, football, baseball, and/or basketball. And its impact on the national economy, especially during the last weeks of the particular season whether it be the NFL, MLB, or NBA, is immense; a handful of economists have even proven a noticeable loss in GDP due to fantasy sports and its effects on worker productivity. Well, week seventeen, the final week, is a few days away. Seven teams are clearly out of contention. And only two teams are left standing, mine and Jeff's. It'll be extremely close with only a single point separating our two teams as of today. $150 and bragging rights are on the line. Just hoping my wide receivers have a good weekend with many of my running backs sidelined with injuries.

Creative Writing for Adults

2004-12-30T09:30:00.000-08:00

The San Francisco Chronicle wine section had an amusing article this morning recapping the notable events in the wine industry this past year and touched on the success of the independent film, "Sideways", by parodying its two main characters, Miles and Jack (article here). In the spirit of the struggling-writer-cum-wine-expert Miles, the article provides a link to a website that someone created a while back that randomly generates wine notes, the short and often adjective-filled commentary by wine connoisseurs used to define the "character" and "personality" of each wine. Here is the link to the Silly Tasting Notes Generator (website here). My first wine note... "Chunky but equally big and plump Chenin Blanc. Hits you with smoked bacon, over-oaked black-cherry and lingering honey. Drink now through June." You can also generate an "extra-silly" version. Here is my first over-the-top wine note... "Tightly wound and morally superior Voignier. Essenses of cottage cheese, sweet fruity pebbles and semi-weak buttermilk pancakes. Drink now through 2008." Too funny. One could make much of the conspiracy amongst professional writers and winemakers. Imagine some of the literary greats marketing wine in their own particular style of writing... Hemingway, Faulkner, Twain, Steinbeck... the latter may be one up already, having penned The Grapes of Wrath.

Autumn 2004, the Abridged Version

2004-12-28T11:00:00.000-08:00

The autumn of 2004 marked many a personal milestone. Rather than revisit each with a lengthy, long-winded tome, I thought it better to just list them out and save the in-depth commentary for future weblog entries: - A picturesque and memorable wedding, reception, and extended family reunion in the Sonoma wine country - A wonderful family gathering at the house on the Russian River - A week of decadence and irresponsibility on the banks of the Seine in Paris on our honeymoon - Hosting more than three hundred church members in Walnut Creek for a second wedding reception - Celebrating our first Christmas weekend together as a combined family on the north shore of Lake Tahoe - Having a number of out-of-town friends crash at our new place including two that recently made the decision to move back to the Bay Area - In the midst of all of this, somehow completing the fall quarter of my second year in the MBA program - Watching the Cal football team climb to a top five national ranking after more than a decade of grief as a long-suffering fan - Participating in the annual Big Game bonfire at the Hearst Greek Theater and watching Cal demolish Stanford the next day for the third straight year - Too many other memories to recount in one blog so this will have to do for now.

Closed for the Season

2004-10-25T15:30:00.000-07:00

The weblog will be on hiatus from late October to sometime in December. Off to get married.

Power Couple

2004-10-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

Loni Hancock and her husband are familiar faces in the local political scene and have been for quite some time now. In the late eighties and early nineties (while I was a student at Cal), she was the first woman to be elected and serve as mayor of the City of Berkeley. In her two terms as mayor, she made a name for herself at the state and national levels of the Democratic Party, along with friend and Berkeley economics professor Laura Tyson. Both were eventually tapped by Bill Clinton to serve in his administration, Hancock in the Department of Education and Tyson as his chief economic adviser. Hancock returned to Berkeley in 2001, in part, to run for the state assembly seat being vacated by her husband, Tom Bates, a seat that he had held for two decades. I know this, in large part, because I served as a legislative intern for then Assemblyman Bates while a student at Berkeley. It was quite an experience. In large measure because the district, the 14th Assembly District, comprised the most diverse hodgepodge of constituent cities and towns, from the liberal stronghold of Berkeley and the communities north of Berkeley to the affluent but politically moderate (at times progressive) area of Lafayette-Moraga-Orinda ("Lamorinda") to the solidly conservative middle-class suburb of Walnut Creek. It was a testament to Bates' political acumen that he succeeded in office for so long given this demographic challenge. He stuck to the issues that were of common concern to all including health services for the elderly and indigent, primary and secondary education, and strong support for the Berkeley campus as well as the East Bay parks district including the creation and funding of the shoreline park and walking trail that now runs from El Cerrito through the Berkeley marina down to Emeryville. Of course in a district dominated by countless Berkeley alums, it didn't hurt that Bates was a starting player on the last Cal football team to play in the Rose Bowl, way back in 1959. Recently, Bates did a little switch-a-roo with his wife by successfully running for mayor of Berkeley against Shirley Dean who took the seat from Hancock when she left for the Clinton post. So Bates, once the 14th District Assemblyman, is now Berkeley mayor. And his wife, Hancock, once Berkeley mayor, is now the 14th District Assemblywoman. In politics, anything is possible. Anyhow, the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article today (link here) about Hancock's new weblog, intended to be a forum for constituents to sound off on certain issues of local concern. The first topic being discussed is the hotly debated proposal for the first Indian gaming casino in the state to be located in an urban center, smack dab in the heart of her legislative district.

Economic Sleight of Hand? The Deception of Low Inflation

2004-10-12T13:30:00.000-07:00

A commentary written this month by Bill Gross of PIMCO, the most respected bond fund manager on the Street, has been the talk of the professional investment community (link here). According to Gross, the federal government has been "fudging on inflation" by adjusting many of the prices that go into its calculation for improvements in quality. In a brief five page article, he accuses the federal government of having artificially adjusted down key measures of inflation and of having overstated productivity levels and more importantly, overall GDP growth. He has very strong words for the government and in particular, Greenspan's Fed. He writes: "No I cannot sit quietly on this one, nor as I’ve mentioned, have other notables in the past few years. The CPI as calculated may not be a conspiracy but it’s definitely a con job foisted on an unwitting public by government officials who choose to look the other way or who convince themselves that they are fostering some logical adjustment in a New Age Economy dependent on the markets and not the marketplace for its survival. If the CPI is so low and therefore real wages in the black, tell me why U.S. consumers are resorting to hundreds of billions in home equity takeouts to keep consumption above the line. If real GDP growth is so high, tell me why this economy hasn’t created any jobs over the past four years. High productivity? Nonsense, in part – statistical, hedonically created nonsense. My sense is that the CPI is really 1% higher than official figures and that real GDP is 1% less. You are witnessing a 'haute con job' and one day those gorgeous statistics just like those gorgeous models, will lose their makeup, add a few pounds and wind up resembling a middle-aged Mom in a cotton skirt with better things to do than to chase the latest fad or ephemeral fashion." Looks as though the era of Greenspan worship may be coming to an end as this commentary undercuts everything the Fed has achieved, or rather, claimed to have achieved, in the past half decade, most notably of having kept inflation in check.

No W(h)ining

2004-10-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

Heard from someone in my MBA program that Stanford is actually offering a wine tasting class for credit. I was so floored by this that I actually did a search for the class webpage (link here). Unbelievable. If the luxury shopping mall, equestrian center, 18-hole golf course, and Rodin sculpture garden, all on campus, weren't enough. Makes one wonder if Stanford is indeed a real university or rather a luxury resort that happens to award you a piece of sheepskin at the end of your four-year vacation. Apparently, the class from a prior semester toured Chateau Souverain during a trip to Sonoma; they have photos of the entrance as well as the grounds posted on the site (photos here).

Friday Night Fellowship

2004-10-11T15:15:00.000-07:00

The new film, Friday Night Lights, based on journalist H.G. Bissinger's bestselling nonfiction book of the same name, follows the actual events of the Permian Panthers high school football team in the barren west Texas oil town of Odessa during their 1988 state championship season (review here). Both the book and the film adaptation document and dramatize the obsessiveness and cult status of high school football in rural Texas, in particular, in the boom-and-bust town of Odessa where winning is everything. Indeed, I can attest to the fact that in every Texas town on Friday nights during high school football season, everyone, and I mean everyone including the mayor, is sitting somewhere in the stadium bleachers rooting on the home team. It's the only game in town. But it's more than that. Friday night football games in the Lone Star State are more akin to Sunday morning worship service. An informal state religion really and a mandatory part of one's civic duty as a citizen of the Republic of Texas. The book (and film) document the 1988 season. I actually remember that year and the divisional playoff game between the very same Odessa Permian team and my high school alma mater, Nimitz. With our star running back, we nearly pulled off the upset. Not quite though. Should be interesting watching the movie knowing that our school was involved in one of Permian's playoff games that year.

Going Native: The Hawaiian Rice Plate

2004-10-11T14:30:00.000-07:00

While T and I ate most of our meals at the various wedding events, we did have the occasional opportunity to venture out. After our flight into Hilo, we took the advice of a colleague of mine who had just returned from his own trip to the Big Island. Matt's recommendation of Cafe Pesto (link here) was only reinforced on the plane ride in by a "local" who recommended the place to the young flight attendant on board. Who knew the best place to eat in Hilo was an Italian restaurant. Go figure. T's grilled ono with jalapeno-infused broth was delicious though. And my wild mushroom and artichoke pizza wasn't bad either. But the real high point for me was my first encounter with a traditional "Hawaiian rice plate". Hawaiian rice plates are the everyday food of locals, having originated with the sugar cane plantation workers from Japan and Korea generations ago. They vary in composition and quality depending on where you go but generally always include a handful of common components served on a paper plate: rice, fried egg, fried spam, and gravy. T and I ate ours at Blane's in Hilo. Delicious. It definitely beats mainland fast food both on taste and price. Each plate is less than four bucks! My mission now is to find a genuine Hawaiian rice plate place in the Bay Area. There has to be one somewhere.

Big Island, Big Celebration

2004-10-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

T and I flew into Hawaii on Thursday for Vincent and Allison's weekend wedding celebration in Kona. Our Island Air flight from Honolulu to Hilo on the opposite side of the Big Island was spectacular. The pilot of the two propeller, 30-seat island hopper flew low enough along the northern shoreline that we could make out each person, each horse, each banana plant, and each dramatic coastal waterfall (and there were many). Hilo is a lush green, tropical paradise, and the flight into the airport was a visual feast. Driving over the mountain pass to the Kona side was another story. The barren expansive fields of lava rock made us feel as though we were roving on the moon's surface. And there were very few "locals" in the coastal Kohala district as most of the area is comprised of isolated and gated resort hotels, including the Marriot where we stayed (link here). Great hotel though and the private beach alone was worth the trip. Ah, reclining on a lounge chair inches from the clear blue ocean surf, the sweet murmur of lapping waves. Nirvana. Other than a few side trips including a tour of the Greenwell Farms plantation in the coffee growing district of Kona, much of our time was spent at one of the many wedding events during the three-day celebration. The rehearsal dinner at the estate house of the Parker Ranch in Waimea (link here) was beyond words. From the demographic of the hundred plus guests, the gathering straddled members of the Princeton Alumni Club of Northern California, seemingly all Ivy League-educated venture capitalists in the Bay Area under thirty-five years of age, Vincent's Kim clan from the East Coast, and Allison's Hostetter clan from the Midwest. The open mike speeches and toasts were all quite memorable and some of them absolutely hilarious. Exactly how did the two of them meet again? Even the Hawaiian pastor ribbed them about that one. The ceremony on Saturday afternoon was held at the small but historic Imiola Church in Waimea (photo here). The New England-style wooden structure supposedly dates back to the mid-nineteenth century. During the ceremony, gusts of ocean wind caused the planks to creak every now and then much like the inner hulls of a wooden ship. Despite the very traditional surroundings, the officiant kept the program short and light-hearted with a refreshing mix of sincerity and humor. Afterwards, we made our way to the reception which was held on the lawns of the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel facing both the white sand shores of Kauna'oa Bay and the deep orange hues of the Hawaiian sunset (link here). It was a quite an evening to cap off the weekend. Disco dancing notwithstanding. We wish V & A a happy life together as well as a safe trip back from their African safari.

Dinner on the Stagecoach

2004-10-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

Had dinner last night with the rest of the equity derivatives team at the Slanted Door restaurant in the historic Ferry Building (link here). We ordered a table full of appetizers and entrees along with several bottles of wine and microbrews. It was quite a spread. The buttery halibut with spicy cilantro salad were beyond words as were the tender claypot-cooked shortribs. And the imperial rolls rocked as usual. The best part was passing the bill over to Matt. Of course, a close second was Matt, Steph, and I, the Berkeley contingent, gloating about the success of our football team just to needle the three Stanfordites in our midst.

Weekend Highlights

2004-10-05T16:30:00.000-07:00

As we get closer to the wedding date, my thoughts and musings are becoming more abbreviated and fragmented. With preparation for the wedding and honeymoon, marriage planning, work, school, family, friends, and a host of other obligations competing for time and attention, my mind has become one incredibly complex web of interwoven to-do's and queues. One gigantic Excel spreadsheet of the synapses. Anyhow, I did manage to "indulge" in some fun and non-productive things this past weekend. Here's a brief synopsis. Friday night at the Hawaiian (and later Korean) bar on Geary with T and friends for a bachelorette celebration. A personal tour later that night of the Frakes' home in the quiet enclave of St. Francis Wood, guided in part by a doting Schnauzer terrier. Saturday morning enjoying the Cal game on our new Samsung HD-ready widescreen television. Saturday afternoon mountain biking on the Sawyer Camp Trail along the Crystal Springs reservoir with Wag Boy setting the pace. Sunday afternoon with Phil and Suze (after her long sabbatical in Europe) for a dimsum feast in Chinatown and a casual stroll to North Beach for coffee.

Hawaii Lite

2004-10-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

This past Friday, Staci organized a bachelorette night for T at a popular Hawaiian nightspot down on Geary in the City. A few of us non-femmes made it out for the last half hour. Before I had a chance to get my seat warm, the drinks came out, one after the other. I don't remember much after that, really. Just bits here and there. The live island music, a pair of raunchy dice, a group tequila shot, a camera phone shadowing my every move, downing a pink Pepto-looking concoction, a small windup toy "swimming" across the table, Wag Boy clearing his throat for an encore performance of the Peking Opera, Christine and Staci looking on in disbelief... hope the night was not a portend of things to come this weekend when T and I are actually in Hawaii... "island living" may be a bit too much for my system. Anyhow, mahalo to Staci for planning the night out and for not hiring a male dancer for the occasion... notwithstanding an inebriated Jonathan doing the Irish jig on the sidewalk after our nightcap at the Korean bar down the street... Riverdance it was not.

The (Real) Big Game

2004-10-05T13:50:00.000-07:00

Forget the annual Big Game with Stanford. Right now, THE Big Game is the one on Saturday against USC (link here). USC and Cal are ranked first and seventh in the nation, respectively, and are battling for the Pac-10 title, not to mention, if things go really right, the BCS crown. Just how big is the upcoming Cal-USC game? ABC is touting it as the game to watch and will be televising it nationally. ESPN College GameDay has chosen it as the college game of the week (over the Texas-Oklahoma game) and will be airing their show live from the Coliseum. And the godfather of college football, Keith Jackson, will be doing the play-by-play of the game. The Coliseum has already sold out its 92,000 seats. 92,000! Crazy. And the winner, no doubt, will be an odds-on favorite for the Orange Bowl. Forget the Rose Bowl. If Cal wins on Saturday, they will, for the first time in a very, very, very long time, have a shot at the national title. Bad news, USC is a 7 1/2 point favorite going into the game. Good news, USC was a heavy favorite last season as well, before the Bears upset them in their only loss of the year. As a longtime Cal football fan, I'm flying high (and cashing in on years of agonizing, gut-wrenching losses).

Shallow Alto, Shallow Wallet

2004-09-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

Big surprise. Coldwell Banker released the results of their national survey of home prices. Eight of the top twenty cities nationwide with the most expensive housing markets are located right here in the Bay Area: Palo Alto (4), San Mateo (7), San Francisco (8), Oakland Hills/Montclair (15), San Jose (16), Santa Cruz (18), Fremont (19), and Pleasanton (20) (link here). A typical home in Palo Alto averages $1.21 million. Insane. The top ten is comprised almost entirely of California cities with La Jolla (1), Beverly Hills (2), and Santa Barbara (3) heading up the list. With the severe budget issues plaguing state and local governments in California, the high assessment of home values is a necessary lifeline. The question is will the revenue generated by high property taxes help counties work their way through the budget mess. And what happens when valuations, i.e., home prices, begin to fall. Oye.

Corgi Uncorked

2004-09-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

Amusing article about a Geyserville winery's recent shindig for its dog-owning club members (link here). Is that a Westie terrier I see in the first photo?

Weekend in Hawaii: Sun, Surf, and Sand... oh, and Southern Cal

2004-09-27T13:05:00.000-07:00

It was announced earlier today that the much anticipated USC (#1) versus Cal (#10) game in two weeks will be nationally televised on ABC and will be billed as the college game of the week. Should be an epic matchup. USC just barely escaped Stanford Stadium with a win over the lowly Cardinal on Saturday. They were 22+ point favorites going into the game but barely managed to scrape by with a 3 point margin of victory. The question everyone in college football is asking after that shocker: is USC vulnerable? Or was it a needed wake-up call for a dominant but increasingly complacent squad? Paper tiger or waking lion? Cal fans can only hope it is the former and not the latter. Jake Curtis of the San Francisco Chronicle summarizes it best in his column (link here). Looks as though T and I will be in Hawaii for Vincent and Allison's wedding that weekend. Given the time difference, I may have to get up extremely early to catch the broadcast. Wonder if there is an all-night sports bar in Kona.

Masters in Bemoaning Accounting (MBA)

2004-09-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

Began the second year of my MBA program earlier this week. One of my courses this quarter, Managerial Accounting: Strategic Cost Management, is needed for an accounting elective requirement. After taking Introduction to Financial Accounting the first year, it became quite clear that accounting was not an area that held much deep personal interest. Sure discretion and judgement play a part in the field, but for the most part, it remains a highly mechanical, rule-based discipline that limits innovation and creative thinking. Maybe that's why most of the professional accountants that I have met are self-effacing. For the next ten weeks, I'll have to bear with it. One bean, two beans, three beans... oye.

Roman War

2004-09-24T09:30:00.000-07:00

Amused to read on the front page of today's Wall Street Journal that American watchmakers are campaigning against the recent use of the Roman numeral "IV" by luxury Swiss watchmakers Patek Philippe and Bedat & Co. Apparently, watchmakers have traditionally used "IIII" on the face as a means to counterbalance the visual weight of the "VIII" on the other side, and some of them view the use of "IV" as an affront to this age-old practice. In all my years of wearing watches with Roman numerals, I never even noticed the use of the "IIII". Somehow, it seems a bit wrong. In my numerous Latin classes, we were always taught to use "IV"; never, ever "IIII". The writer points out that London's Big Ben, the most famous of clock faces, also skirts the convention by using "IV". T and I were actually tipped off to the controversy earlier in the week by a saleswoman at the Kerns boutique in Burlingame as we were pricing some of their watches. We may actually go with the Bedats. Good thing too because, at $25,000 each, the Pateks may be a bit out of our price range.

$1.27 Million

2004-09-24T08:45:00.000-07:00

Andrew Tilton had better be right about the decline in home prices. The San Francisco Business Times just published an article with the following statistic: "Statewide, the 10 cities and communities with the highest median home prices in California during August 2004 were: Beverly Hills, $1,445,000; Manhattan Beach, $1,400,00; Laguna Beach, $1,375,000; Los Altos, $1,350,000; Palos Verdes Estates, $1,325,000; Burlingame, $1,270,000; Newport Beach, $1,100,000; Saratoga, $1,062,500; Orinda, $950,000; Calabasas, $935,000." Burlingame/Hillsborough is the sixth most expensive housing market in the state. A median of $1.27 million? Yikes.

2626 Warring Street, Berkeley

2004-09-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

Reading this article in the San Francisco Chronicle (link here) reminded me of my own days living in a house on Berkeley's "Greek Row", the picturesque, tree-lined thoroughfare that runs down Piedmont Avenue and Warring Street connecting the eastern gate of campus, Hearst Greek Theater, Memorial Stadium, International House, and the Clark Kerr satellite campus. Friends of my aunt and uncle down in Ventura County were looking for someone to manage a large multi-unit house they happened to own in Berkeley; their son, a member of the Cal men's swimming team, had just graduated and would be moving out of the house along with his teammates (including Olympic gold medalist Matt Biondi, who lived on the second floor). So I jumped at the chance. Free rent with a small weekly stipend. The house and the setup was more than any college student could ask for. Room-by-room housekeeping twice a week, professional gardener, big screen projection television, leather lounge chairs, mahogany furniture, gourmet kitchen with a double oven, full size pool table, free income from selling parking spots along our driveway during football games, etc. Good times.

No, it's the Ritz

2004-09-21T14:30:00.000-07:00

The weekend retreat at the Ritz in Half Moon Bay was just the ticket. It started off with a bang. On the way to the resort, we happened to spot one of our colleagues darting around in his new BMW M3 convertible. He shot us the "wanna race" glance and in no time, we were off to the races. Not much of a matchup given I was driving my lowly Subaru Outback. But one of my passengers knew of a shortcut through a local road bypassing a particularly nasty stretch of Highway 1, the route our bimmer friend took. Needless to say, the porter was carting our bags into the hotel just as the M3 roared into the valet station. Chalk one up for the underdog. Indeed, knowledge is power. Later that afternoon, we made sure to rib him plenty about the embarrassing defeat. The dinner in the Miramontes Room rocked. Grilled lobster tails and fresh raw bar served out on a clifftop terrace overlooking the Pacific Ocean during sunset... it had a dreamlike quality to it. Afterwards, everyone congregated around the fire pit for the ritual cooking of the smores. Others opted for cigars and cognac. The best part was going back to my room which came furnished with a large and inviting marble bath and had incredible views of the coastline and the nearby golf links. It all conjured up that classic scene in one of my all-time favorite movies, Field of Dreams, when Shoeless Joe Jackson surveys the pristine baseball diamond built on Ray Kinsella's wheat field... Shoeless Joe: "Is this heaven?"... Ray: "No, it's Iowa."

Retreat Hangover

2004-09-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

The outside speaker at this year's retreat was Andrew Tilton, the senior economist at Goldman Sachs. His summary of the economy and the outlook for the near and medium term were sobering. The boost from the stimulus has ended, the federal budget deficit is growing, the need to devalue the currency is inevitable, the medicare system needs to be fixed, the Fed has only begun its tightening of rates, corporate profits are headed downward as productivity begins to decline, ad infinitem. He made a point of downplaying the effect of higher oil prices on the economy by pointing to a more troublesome issue, the huge effect that mortgage refinancings have had in boosting consumer spending and consequently, the business sector. Tilton and other economists view the drying up of the mortgage refi market as a more troublesome issue as the economic recovery tries desperately to gain traction. As for the one bright spot in the economy thus far, housing, Tilton believes the "bubble" (yes, he used the term "bubble") began six months ago when he and other economists witnessed the irrational rising of home prices soon after a rise in mortgate rates; this was on top of analysis showing the widening and untenable gap between income levels and housing prices. He and others believe that housing hotspots like the Bay Area are due for price declines but is of the opinion that such declines will be spread out over a couple of years.

Global Schadenfreude

2004-09-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

Very interesting op/ed essay in the latest issue of Foreign Policy (article link here).

Daily Mantra

2004-09-15T13:45:00.000-07:00

Just two more days until my Wells group retreat at the Ritz-Carlton Resort & Spa in Half Moon Bay (link here)... just two more days until my Wells group retreat at the Ritz-Carlton Resort & Spa in Half Moon Bay... just two more days until my Wells group retreat at the Ritz-Carlton Resort & Spa in Half Moon Bay. Repeat mantra until the pain is alleviated.

Time is Flying By... at Gale Force

2004-09-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

Thought it appropriate with the recent spate of catastrophic hurricanes battering the Southeast that my own schedule has seemed like a plus-150 mph, category 5 windstorm. Wedding planning, honeymoon planning, preparing for my second year of the MBA program, preparing for the move from Burlingame to San Mateo, not to mention the typical demands from work, family, and friends, make Hurricane Ivan look like a minor gust of wind during a typical Chicago day. In the past week, I must have driven what is the equivalent of three laps around the entire Bay Area running errands, visiting with family, meeting with friends, shopping for gifts, searching for furniture, ad infinitem. Thankfully, we have enjoyed and made the most of what little downtime we do have. On Saturday evening, after watching the Cal football team (now ranked tenth in the nation by both AP and ESPN) demolish their second opponent, hapless New Mexico State, we met up with Wag Boy down in Palo Alto and had a hearty dinner at Gordon Biersch off University. The coupling of their seasonal hefeweizen with a basket of their tasty garlic fries rocks. It was a great late summer evening down on "the Farm". And before we knew it, the streets were flooded with inebriated and obnoxious Stanford football fans celebrating their team's drubbing of BYU at neighboring Stanford Stadium. Read later that the Athletic Director had to write a formal letter of apology to BYU for the Stanford Band's halftime show in which they poked fun at BYU's Mormon heritage by depicting a polygamous BYU student with his four wives. Typical. The Stanford Band is notorious for their game-time antics. Most Cal fans will never forget the Band's arrogance when they marched prematurely onto the field during the 1982 Big Game; and will never forget the humiliation the Band suffered seconds later (see photo) at the end of what is now known simply as "the Big Play". They will never learn.

Tour de San Francisco

2004-09-09T10:15:00.000-07:00

Look forward to catching just a glimpse of the T-Mobile International pro cycling race (link here and here) taking part in downtown San Francisco this Sunday. All of the headliners will be participating including Lance Armstrong and his U.S. Postal team, Bobby Julich, Levi Leipheimer, etc. Should be awesome actually seeing them live and up close, especially as they tackle the punishing Taylor Street climb.

It's Like Africa Hot

2004-09-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

This late summer heat wave in the Bay Area has been an unwelcome surprise. I heard from a colleague that it was a sweltering ninety degrees in the Outer Sunset District of San Francisco the past few days. That is astounding for an area that is typically blanketed in fog and never gets much warmer than the upper sixties. Another colleague who is on maternity leave and has been working from home out in Pleasanton has had her air conditioning system going round-the-clock, with the plus one hundred degree highs baking her roof. What is up with the weather? If it gets any hotter, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) may just rise from his grave and take back his quip, "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco". A more apropos quote is the one from the Matthew Broderick character in the film remake of Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues: "It's like Africa hot".

Cal 56, Air Force 14

2004-09-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

Cal won its season opener convincingly and made a strong argument for all of the preseason hype as well as the top 15 national rankings from both the AP and ESPN polls. Rodgers and Arrington both looked solid as did the offensive line. And freshman tailback Lynch is clearly the real deal. I had the live stream of the game playing on my wi-fi enabled laptop at a Starbucks in the Santana Row shopping district of San Jose, and the neighboring cafe patron turned out to be a Cal grad as well. He pulled his chair alongside my laptop, and we formed an impromptu Cal rooting section. Good times.

Open for Business (School)

2004-09-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

The second year of my MBA program officially begins in three weeks. Three weeks. Damn. Well I enjoyed the summer recess while it lasted. Definitely not looking forward to restarting the daily commutes from downtown San Francisco down to the heart of Silicon Valley. Forty miles of pure I-101 gridlock. Shouldn't complain. I have a classmate that makes the daily trip from his job in Walnut Creek, a much nastier sixty mile, I-680 commute from the inland part of the East Bay. Maybe I'll seek solace and inspiration from Jason, a classmate and fellow Kor-Am student group member, who graduated this past June. He and his wife Melissa just invited us over to their new home in Sunnyvale for a housewarming party next weekend, where we will invariably commiserate with the other MBAs and their spouses. Plenty of beer and pizza I hope.

Sedaris in Berkeley

2004-09-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

Reviewed the fall schedule for Cal Performances (link here) and was surprised to find David Sedaris on the lineup. I have been slowly chipping away at his latest work, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (link here), during my trips to the loo, and some of his latest pieces are pure comic genius. There is one that had me in tears - "Six to Eight Black Men", about how different cultures celebrate Christmas, in particular, the Dutch, where Santa is accompanied not by reindeer or elves but rather, "by six to eight angry black men". Apparently a holdover from the Netherlands' days as a colonial power. In an age of globalism and cultural homogeneity, Sedaris finds comfort in these peculiar vestiges of regionalism. He also notes the gun laws in Michigan which permit the blind to hunt unaccompanied by a sighted person. Scary. I enjoyed his prior Me Talk Pretty One Day and Holidays on Ice, but this collection may top them all.

Los Pueblewhat?

2004-09-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

Some residents along the rugged and spectacular coastal stretches of San Mateo County are proposing incorporation as a municipality to gain more sway over local development (article link here). Not unheard of. This was partly in response to the recent acquisition of private land by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (link here). But the sheer size of the land the residents are wanting to include is jaw-dropping: all land within the boundaries of Pacifica (north), Santa Cruz (south), the Pacific Ocean (west), and I-280 (east), excluding the already incorporated town of Half Moon Bay. This would include the stretch of Crystal Springs adjacent to our new place along the San Mateo/Hillsborough border. The proposed area has two of the best scenic drives in all of Northern California (i.e., Highway 1 from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz and I-280 along the Upper and Lower Crystal Springs Reservoirs from Burlingame to Palo Alto), as well as some of its most pristine beaches and hiking trails, especially along the unspoiled mountain ridges separating Crystal Springs from the coastal areas. With only 6,500 residents in that vast swath of scenic and undeveloped greenspace, it would make the proposed "city" the least densely populated municipality in the entire state. More trees than people indeed. Along with the fiscal hurdles involved with incorporation, the proponents will probably need to change the proposed name of their municipality to garner some more votes. Los Pueblecitos? Sounds more like a barren, sun-baked transit stop in the middle of Arizona or New Mexico rather than the lush, coastal oasis that it represents, in Northern California. And the name doesn't exactly roll off one's tongue. Thankfully, the proposition is a long shot.

Buy Dubya at 0.534, Sell Kerry at 0.466

2004-09-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in the prior "Going Long" on Shares of UCB weblog entry, the University of Iowa maintains a simulated but fairly accurate futures market on the expected outcome of the upcoming Presidential Election (link here). The morning after Cheney's pointed attack of Kerry during the Republican National Convention, it appears the spread between Bush and Kerry in the Iowa market is widening in Bush's favor. Dubya is now trading at 0.534 and Kerry is at 0.466. Translation, the markets are forecasting a 53.4%/46.6% outcome with the Bush/Cheney ticket winning reelection. This may change with the anticipated barrage of anti-Bush commercials about to be broadcast by pro-Kerry 527 groups.

Last Breath of Bachelorhood

2004-09-02T09:50:00.000-07:00

T had her bridal shower this past weekend and a number of her out-of-town friends made the trip to San Francisco including some friends from New York who took up residence at my place in Burlingame. So I crashed over at Wagamama Boy's bachelor pad across the bay. Big screen television, Comcast digital cable, comfortable couches, ready supply of beverages... need I say more. After a pleasant dinner on Saturday night with T and a few of her friends (including Kathy from Seattle, who I met for the first time), I made the drive back to the pad where Wagamama and I sat unmoved till three in the morning as we soaked up the multi-channel Olympics coverage. The gold medal match in women's handball between Korea and Denmark was epic. Never thought I would be so into handball, a strange amalgam of soccer, basketball, and roller derby. Game went past double overtime and ended on an exchange of penalty throws. Definite nailbiter. {remote control} Taekwondo. Steven Lopez wins gold. {remote control} Track and field relays. U.S. men's 4x400 dominates the field. {remote control} Volleyball... at the rate we were going, we could have easily gone till daybreak. Good times. Much thanks to Jeannie for planning the shower and for allowing me one last weekend to squander time as a pretend bachelor.

"Going Long" on Shares of UCB

2004-09-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

The expectations for the Cal football team are sky high. The San Francisco Chronicle ran a series of articles in today's special Pac-10 preview including the lead article (link here). Not surprisingly, the Cal-USC matchup is getting quite a bit of national attention including from ESPN and ABC. Not so much because Cal and USC are expected to be the top two teams in the conference, but rather, because of the backstory involving last season's BCS debacle. USC's only loss was to Cal in triple overtime, ultimately costing them the outright national championship and tossing the entire BCS computerized scoring system into chaos. USC, the consensus number one in the country, will be out for revenge. But this year's Cal team is strong enough to make the matchup very interesting. This year's football viewing season will be a busy one with the program in Berkeley getting so much attention (and televised coverage); not to mention my participation in a friend's fantasy football league. The live draft for the league is in a couple of days and the trash talk amongst the ten participants has already begun. Fantasy football should be interesting this year especially with the involvement of two long-time veterans in our league. During football season, much of Wall Street spends as much time glued to the fantasy football ticker as it does to the exchange ticker. Scary. In fact, our Bloomberg terminals on the floor provide real-time football scores, news, and player updates. Trading stocks or trading players. Same approach, same skills involved. Buy low, sell high. Shares in IBM undervalued? How about Pittsburgh wide receiver Plaxico Burress? Shares in UT Starcom a growth opportunity? How about San Francisco quarterback Tim Rattay? Now if the Cal football program were a stock, it's beta would be off the charts. On a related note, the University of Iowa operates a simulated "market" in which participants can buy or sell futures based on their expectations of who will win the Presidential Election (link here). It's considered to be fairly accurate. Bush was last trading at 0.525 while Kerry was at 0.476 (latest quotes here). Not a good sign for the Democrats.

Show Me the Money

2004-08-24T11:15:00.000-07:00

Just heard another one of our group members is defecting to New York. Two major departures in less than three months, both to major derivatives dealer firms in midtown Manhattan. First, Steven to BNP Paribas and now Mike to Credit Suisse First Boston. Times like these that I realize the derivatives world is comprised of a scant three cities: New York, London, and Tokyo. And that the real money and the bulk of opportunities are in New York. Sad to see Mike go. During a group dinner at Moose's in North Beach, his inebriated and comic attempt to speak Russian, apparently the native language of his maternal grandmother, to Katya, a colleague and daughter of a former Russian diplomat, had us in tears. Dosvidanya Mikhail and spasiba.

Get Real

2004-08-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

Seattle-based Real Networks appears to be upping the anty in its battle with Apple and its hugely successful iTunes website for paid online music downloading supremacy. Just a week ago, they introduced a promotional "half-price sale", lowering the price per song from 99 cents to 49 cents. And this morning, they announced a pilot program with two universities allowing students to subscribe to the Rhapsody monthly service at a steep discount (link here); students would pay $2 to $3 per month for access to unlimited music downloading. Hmm. But don't they download songs for free already. Yes and no. While peer-to-peer "sharing" is still very common, universities have really cracked down on the practice, usually by limiting the bandwidth of dormitory broadband connections at night. And Real Networks is betting that students would opt to pay the nominal charge for the convenience of not having to hunt for songs via peer sharing networks, the assurance of a quality download, and the legitimacy of having legal ownership of the songs. The two pilot campuses? The University of Minnesota and my alma mater, the University of California, Berkeley. The execs at Real Networks are a crafty bunch. One can't dismiss the audacity of their latter choice. Berkeley is not far from Apple CEO Steve Jobs' "other" office at Pixar Studios in neighboring Emeryville (or from Apple headquarters in Cupertino, for that matter); and Jobs' close friend and Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniack, is a Berkeley alum and continues to have strong ties to the campus. It's getting ugly.

The Big Rivalry in Athens

2004-08-23T13:15:00.000-07:00

Both the Berkeley and Stanford athletic departments are tracking the success of their respective Olympians at the Games in Athens (Berkeley link and Stanford link). As of today, Stanford collectively has six medals, all silver, and has yet to garner a gold. This is surprising given the large contingent of Stanfordites in Athens. Comparatively, Berkeley grad Natalie Coughlin alone has already earned two gold, two silver, and a bronze. Bears rule. On the topic of Cal athletics, there was yet another glowing article about the football program, this time in the most recent USA Today (link here). The bit about Jeff Tedford as the Godfather had me rolling. The mention of Heisman and Aaron Rodgers in the same sentence may be taking it too far though... even for us die-hard alums.

Shift to a Buyers Market

2004-08-23T13:10:00.000-07:00

Alexis McGee, president of Foreclosures.com, was quoted in today's San Francisco Business Times: "McGee warns that defaults would probably rise again as rising interest rates put pressure on hyper-inflated west coast housing markets. 'We think a long overdue price correction has already begun. Over-leveraged homeowners that have abused home equity lines will find themselves with negative equity. If they get in a bind, they'll just mail their keys to the lender and walk.'" This is what I surmised in my prior weblog Bursting of the Bubble?. I can only hope a meaningful "correction" hits the Peninsula by graduation time. Two of the guys at the semimonthly and unofficial Wells Fargo / Johnson & Johnson poker night were sharing information about prospective homes and real estate agents in Arizona. They both work in regional sales with the option of locating anywhere within a three hour flight range of San Francisco. Apparently, Arizona is a very popular haven for those fed up with the Bay Area housing market; no doubt because a half million actually buys you something down there. How sobering.

Proof Positive

2004-08-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are mathematically-inclined, here is a simple proof to show that "0.999... = 1" (link here): (1) Let x = 0.999..., (2) then 10x = 9.999..., (3) now subtract x from both sides, (4) we get 9x = 9, (5) which reduces to x = 1, (6) thus, x = 0.999... = 1. Hmm. Intriguing. Yes, it's been a slow morning.

Friday Vine & Dine

2004-08-21T16:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we had the good fortune of enjoying a pleasant afternoon on a vineyard in Sonoma. We had a few photos taken in the picturesque fountain garden at the pastoral Vintners Inn (link here). On the drive back down through Marin, we stopped at one of our all-time favorite restaurants, located in Sausalito. Their samosas and freshly-made chutney rock. A Wells colleague and his wife opted for the barbequed oysters at Hog Island Oyster Company (link here) near Tomales Bay. They were determined to "top it off" with prime rib down in the city. Oye.

Our Neighborhood Japantown

2004-08-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

With T's move to San Mateo, we have spent a considerable amount of time shopping and dining in the nearby downtown area. It is becoming evident with each subsequent visit just how many Japanese-Americans there are in the area and how intertwined they are with the history of the city. I count more than ten Japanese restaurants within a three block area as well as two Japanese markets, a Japanese-American historical center, and a full-fledged Japanese tea garden (link here)(additional photos). By chance, we stumbled across a genuine Tokyo-style ramen house above one of the markets; the patrons were all Japanese nationals, presumably JAL flight crews on layovers at SFO. One of the markets, Takahashi, apparently dates back to 1906 (link here). Who knew San Mateo had such a thriving Japanese-American community? Will definitely have to try the homemade mochi as well as the fresh, unpasteurized tofu procured and sold at Takahashi.

Grape Press

2004-08-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

Encouraged to see a Chateau Souverain offering amongst the list of highly recommended Sauvignon Blancs in a recent San Francisco Chronicle review (link here). T and I have been raving about their Sauvignon Blanc for some time now ever since we first sampled it at their restaurant. Their 2002 seems to get quite a bit of press (yes, pun intended). Maybe if we're lucky, we can score a couple of cases to pour at the wedding in October. Earlier this week, the winery shipped us a bottle of their Viognier as well as a reserve bottling of their Merlot, both of which I am eager to sample, especially now that the audit is winding down at work.

That's Greek to Me

2004-08-19T10:05:00.000-07:00

The swimming competitions at the Olympics have been intense. Real nail-biters. Tuesday night's men's freestyle relay final had me on the edge of my seat as the American team just beat out the Aussies by a microscopic 13/100th of a second. It was a little nerve-racking to see the time gap created by Michael Phelps' dominating start vanish with the next two swimmers and to watch as Klete Keller had to battle Ian Thorpe stroke for stroke down the last 50m. That had to have been the closest finish ever. It was also great seeing the American women's team repeat the same feat for gold last night (and for a world record to boot). Natalie Coughlin, the Berkeley phenom, cut through the water like it was air. The men's individual all-around gymnastics competition was even more entertaining. Midway through, the Chinese gold-medal favorite choked when he missed a hold on the horizontal bars and had to completely stop and restart his routine. The anguish on his otherwise stoic face was apparent. The overall favorite to win gold, American Paul Hamm, had choked as well, having fallen over the mat into the scorer's table after he landed off-balance after his vault. The spectators were in collective shock (as were the NBC commentators who were fumbling for words to express the magnitude of their disbelief). This opened the way for the two upstart Koreans who were solid the entire night and were the only ones not to have committed any serious gaffs. By the last rotation, they were almost assured the gold and silver medals. But Hamm had the very last routine in the finals, on the horizontal bars. He stood in fourth place and by his own account, was resigned to battling for bronze. To earn gold, he would have had to score well above 9.80, an unlikely feat given the miserly scoring by the judges that night (there had been only two prior scores above 9.80). Hamm went for the jugular and put on an amazing display. His three consecutive "release and grabs" and his nailing the high arch dismount earned him the gold by the slimmest point margin in history, 12/1,000th of a point. It was quite a show.

$400/Hour

2004-08-17T14:30:00.000-07:00

Because of the complexity of some of our deals, I oftentimes have to consult with outside legal counsel. And as with all of our past deals, I rely on the same dependable attorney, a Chicago-based partner at the largest corporate law firm specializing in financial derivatives work. We are on the phone together just about every other week. Only recently did I learn that he had chosen law as a second career much later in his life; Bob attended law school at the University of Chicago in his early forties and was by far the oldest member of his graduating class. Apparently, he had originally pursued a career as a tenure track professor of philosophy after having earned his doctorate at Cornell. Big time philosophy wonk. And on the side, he serves on the board of the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. Big time architecture wonk. If his billable rate were a bit more reasonable, I would have relished the opportunity to pick his brain about both topics. Sartre, Existentialism, the Prairie School, Falling Water. Discussing the mechanics of a prepaid variable share forward contract on restricted shares held by an insider just doesn't have the same appeal. Maybe that's why the billable rate is so damn high.

Monthly Parking as an Economic Indicator

2004-08-17T14:15:00.000-07:00

Economists have often toyed with clever and ingenious ways to gauge the state of the economy. For example, The Economist has long espoused its famous "Big Mac" theory of purchasing power parity. By comparing the cost, converted in U.S. dollar terms, of a McDonald's Big Mac hamburger in various countries, one can determine whether a nation's currency will strengthen or weaken versus other foreign currencies based on the notion that a McDonald's hamburger should cost the same in Seattle as it does in London or Kuala Lampur (link here). In much the same way, I have my own informal measures of how the local economy is doing. One such measure is the "Financial District Monthly Garage Parking" indicator. During the height of the internet boom a few years back, the parking garage across the street from my office building on California Street had a waiting list of more than fifty applicants all wanting to secure a monthly parking spot. The ones that did secure spots had to pay a "courtesy" fee to the garage manager. In third world countries (and New York City), this is better known as a bribe or kickback. But the tech bubble was at its apex. And employee bonuses and stock option gains ran amuck, driving up demand for monthly parking. Anyhow, I inquired at the same garage this morning as to what the wait list number was. The response? "What wait list? Go ahead and pick your spot. Price is a flat $360 monthly." While I am ecstatic about having secured a garage spot so close to work and at cost, what this might say about the ongoing state of the local economy is a bit sobering.

Brief Hiatus

2004-08-10T12:30:00.000-07:00

Writ·er's block, n., a psychological inhibition preventing a writer from proceeding with a piece of writing. Much to think about lately and little motivation (or time) to write. It will pass I'm sure. But in the meantime, here is an excerpt from an excellent article by Robert H. Frank, a writer and professor of economics at the business school at Cornell (bio here), in which he theorizes why a number of research studies have concluded there is little correlation between wealth and personal happiness: "Does money buy happiness? Considerable evidence suggests that if we use an increase in our incomes, as many of us do, simply to buy bigger houses and more expensive cars, then we do not end up any happier than before. But if we use an increase in our incomes to buy more of certain inconspicuous goods–such as freedom from a long commute or a stressful job–then the evidence paints a very different picture. The less we spend on conspicuous consumption goods, the better we can afford to alleviate congestion; and the more time we can devote to family and friends, to exercise, sleep, travel, and other restorative activities. On the best available evidence, reallocating our time and money in these and similar ways would result in healthier, longer– and happier–lives" (link here). Sounds like an interesting argument from another socially progressive Berkeley doctoral graduate. Frank is a Cal grad and former Peace Corps volunteer.

Swinging at the Ritz

2004-08-04T12:30:00.000-07:00

Received the formal agenda for the annual group retreat at the Ritz-Carlton Resort & Spa in Half Moon Bay (link here) scheduled for September. Appears they incorporated golf into the program. We can choose either an 18-hole round of golf or private lessons with a staff pro. Hmm. Embarrass myself by launching a salvo of balls over the cliffs into the Pacific Ocean (as my coworkers cower in shame) OR actually learn how to swing a golf club correctly from a former pro. Tough choice. Think I'll go with the lessons. This recalled a similar outing I participated in a few years back with Dechert at the Scarsdale Golf & Country Club in suburban New York City. We had a choice of either golf or tennis. I chose tennis and in the heat of competition, ended up nearly beaning a senior partner from the Hartford office (and my doubles partner for that afternoon) in the head with my backhand. Golf lessons it is.

Dateline: Crawford, Tex.

2004-08-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

Hilarious. Will Ferrell does a political ad as Dubya down on the ranch in Crawford or as it is better known inside the beltway, "White House West" (link here). Unfortunate that the spoof as well as the website are being sponsored by ACT, a liberal political action committee. What's a registered Republican to do? The GOP political action committees are, by and large, humorless. We have to get our laughs from the other side. Sad but true. Case in point, the commencement address given by Jon Stewart (an avowed liberal) at his alma mater, William & Mary (an incubator for conservatives), a few months ago (link here). It had me in tears.

Waking from Hibernation

2004-08-03T15:15:00.000-07:00

Incredible. The Cal football team has been ranked fifteenth best in the country in the most recent ESPN/USA Today Preseason Coaches Poll released on Friday (link here). T and I have been fortunate to catch quite a few home games since Jeff Tedford took the head coaching reins two seasons ago, including the memorable drubbing of Stanford in the '02 Big Game (link here). One thing is for sure. From the buzz felt in the seats of Memorial Stadium during the home games we have attended, he has palpably reinvigorated the Cal alumni base and endeared himself to hardcore Bear Backers. The two consecutive Big Game wins definitely helped, as did last year's bowl win over Virginia Tech. The away game scheduled for October 9th against USC (ranked the top team in the country by every preseason poll out there) should be intense. Cal will want to prove it truly belongs in the top twenty. And USC will want revenge for their triple overtime loss in Berkeley last season (their only loss in fact and the primary reason they were denied consensus national championship honors last year). Should be an interesting game to watch. Without a doubt, it's a great time to be a Cal football fan.