Thursday, February 7, 2002

Revisiting the seat of my Rant: I am blessed that I live in a neighborhood where people listen. Over email and phone conversations, we hashed out a new version of our letter of support. While we still support the project, we are no longer trashing the process. Sometimes things work. 8:07:09 PM     Comment []

Many thanks to everyone who visited here today. I need five more referers to make over the 1000 mark. Not that I am counting :^p 7:56:50 PM     Comment []

I feel a rant coming on: I just got through reviewing a letter of support for a house remodeling in our neighborhood. Basically, our neighborhood association supports the remodeling effort because the homeowner and architect jumped through a whole bunch of hoops and came up with a design that we can live with. Now the first draft of our support letter essentially states the hoops are too extreme. Bullshit! Far too much in this world is easy. I am reminded of that everytime I see a new spam message in my mail box. There must be standards, levels of excellence, that you must strive for. I want a certain level of excellence before an email message is dropped into my in box. This doesn't currently exist, so I get email about "More great Tobacco bargains" This world is not easy to live in. A number of people fail the test for a drivers' license. Should we make the test easier so that they can pass? Do you want to share the roads with them? I am a registered geologist. I am pleased by the fact that I passed the test, when 80% of test takers failed. Some people feel that an 20% pass rate is too high. Do I want to compete against less competent people? Do you want to trust your home to someone who is less competent? Reduce the pass rate and I am competing against people who are less capable than I am. Who are you going to choose if I don't spend my money on advertising? The bottom line is that without standards, you don't know what your are getting. But as a society, we tend to reduce standards to allow more people to feel good about themselves. The result is that I keep getting messages about "Quick Pre-Approval in Minutes!" in my in box. I know these messages are shit. But with our standards, I am left reading them. 2:59:46 PM     Comment []

I am thinking of making ceviche this evening. Does anyone have a good recipe to try? Most likely I will wing it, shrimp, onions, tomatoes, fresh lemon juice, garlic, peppers, cilantro, etc. How tough can it be? Of course, I will be in direct competition with our local taqueria, Taco's Acapulco, which offers a great shrimp ceviche for $1.50. So, why even try? Well, they don't always have it, and I do like impressing Michele occasionally. 1:15:02 PM     Comment []

Last night I went to my first board meeting of the United Neighborhoods of Santa Clara County (UNSCC). It's an interesting organization, tasked with supporting neighborhood groups from around the county. On of the main goals is to build expertise in neighborhood groups, transfering information from older neighborhood groups like mine (the Campus Community Association) to neighborhoods that are just getting started. Funny, I think that Radio and Manila can play a role here. 4:20:24 AM     Comment []

Fun things not to do late at night when you are tired: Update the firmware on your Wireless/DSL-Router. An alternate title could be: "How to turn a $250 product into a worthless piece of shit." On the bright side, I think I know how to spend my day tomorrow. 4:02:40 AM     Comment []