Please fasten your seatbelts, We have started our descent.

Today, my youngest was awarded his driver's license. I expect that this was a much bigger event for him that it was for me. Hard to tell though, he plays it pretty cool. Not at all like his older sister. She gave the impression that getting her license was really the only, final thing, that forced her to have any extended interactions with her parents. As if, not having her own license was akin to that little drawstring bag that dog owners have dangling from their waist that contains bone shaped treats. The only reason their doting, prized yorkie pays any attention to their requests. Our ability to modulate her activities by controlling her transportation was, in her mind, the last step before parole and complete freedom.

You might have not even realized that our son's 16th birthday and the freedom it afforded was approaching. Of course there was the shift in the driving routines. Instead of either my wife or I driving and our son riding in the back seat, it got a little bit more complicated. At first it was business as usual if we were taking the freeway, but if it only involved city driving, then one of us would sit in the back, and he would get to drive. It seemed that even if the freeway would have been the best route, city street driving was chosen. So consequently, all trips got much longer.

Then, as his quiver of skills developed to include freeway driving, and then evening driving, it became more natural and it was more like we had 3 drivers in the house. Other then did certain pecking hierarchies between my wife and I that were previously understood, but heretofore never spoken, were brought to out in the open. This all resulted in a rule that particular one of us would never be the one who sits shotgun while the other rides in the back seat when our newest "driver under supervision" was at the wheel. This made for some awkward moments when boarding the car, but I am sure that it probably allowed for us to remain married.

So, now we are no longer required in order for him to get to school, to practice, to friends houses, to volunteering, to pick up something needed at the store. Other than being the source of the fuel in the vehicle and a check for a scheduling conflict, we are no longer part of that aspect of dependency.

That's actually the thing. Our son is a little bit less dependent on us to conduct his life than he was just yesterday. That is an incredibly wonderful thing for him, even if he is not letting on that he gets it. It really is. At the same time, it is also a bit more freedom for us, the previous chauffeurs. Our son's activities no longer requires an interruption of our activities in order to deliver him there, or pick him up. Now that we're there, I expect I'll miss that opportunity for discussions, arguments, laughing, or just listening to music (or whatever it is that he listens to).

Time will tell how much less interaction we will have between now and when he leaves for college in a couple years. But there is no denying that this is a major milestone in this trip.

Why do you post what other people ask you to?

Note to friends.

Sometimes, a Facebook message, E-Mail, comment or other, suggests that you type something into your status or comments. That may not always be a great thing to do.

Right now, there is a popular Facebook image going around suggesting that you type in the '@' symbol, some other symbols, and some combination of numbers from your cell phone. What happens is that Facebook ends up replacing it with some other words, usually a person's name.

Here's why this is not a good thing to do:
1) You are typing something into Facebook (known for their high regard for your privacy) that you have know idea what it will do. In this case, it is fairly innocuous. It simply is interpreted by Facebook as a macro to replace with the title of a page it knows about. I could give you a special number to type in there and it would replace it (for all of your friends to see) with the title of the page "I am Gay". Sure, no harm. But, you had no idea what it would replace it with that. What if it was the title of a page that was very offensive to you or your friends. What if it replaced it with your Facebook password. Or it randomly picked a photo that you had deleted in the past that you didn't want shown. The point is, as soon as you type something into Facebook that you are not sure what it does, you are at risk of something happening of which you have no idea.

2) Sometimes, even things that look safe, can give away a little bit about you that you don't want to give away. In this case, you might have just put in the last three digits of your phone number, and it converts it into words. Someone could easily convert those words back into part of your phone number. With that, and other information about you in Facebook, it would be simple to figure out the entire phone number. Maybe not a big deal, but that is probably more information than you planned, or realized you were giving out.

So, before you type something into your status that a friend, acquaintance, or stranger tells you to. Stop. Think about it. Do you know exactly what it is going to do? Are you prepared to share your decision to do that with all of your friends?

Finally, notice that I am NOT asking all of my Facebook friends to put this in their status.

Fertilizer for the Occupy movement

This is how you make a protest grow. You fertilize it.

Occupy

Lost in Translation (an international game of Telephone)

I was inspired, or maybe obsessed, by a poorly translated fortune in a fortune cookie. It as obviously a very profound phrase, I assume, prior to being translated into English. But now, it was odd.

When going from one language to another, something is usually lost. It got me thinking. What would happen when you chain multiple translations front to back and then finally translate it into the original language. That shouldn't be too hard to do. So I obsessively stayed up last Friday until the wee hours of Saturday, making the app. Hopefully getting it out of my head and onto the server would let me sleep.

Meanings get lost as words are translated from one language to another. Enter a simple phrase, choose a couple languages to build a chain of translation and see how the meaning at the end is not what it may have been intended to be.

Here is what I ended up with. Try it out. Let me know.

Lost in Translation (an international game of Telephone): http://openfermenter.com/lostintranslation

Tim

Conflicts should allow you to become better people. This one just showed that we have a ways to go.

Now that Bin Laden has suffered the consequence of his actions, maybe now those who broke the laws, and international standards of human behavior under the guise of keeping us safe can face their due consequences.

Can we quit celebrating the death of a terrorist, and turn an eye onto what our responses to his original acts have cost us as a country, and as human beings? I am glad our boogieman, Bin Laden, is not lurking in the in that barren desert cave (which turned out to actually be a large, comfortable, fortified Pakistan residence), but I have no pretense that this makes me safer. And I am a little saddened at how we did not take the opportunity to to use his actions to allow us to make ourselves better people, but instead a little bit less than we were before. We missed an opportunity.

The AP reports:

Mohammed did not reveal the names while being subjected to the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding, former officials said. He identified them many months later under standard interrogation, they said, leaving it once again up for debate as to whether the harsh technique was a valuable tool or an unnecessarily violent tactic.

At least now the Cat we Belled is gone. Hopefully, we will get another chance to show we know how to behave as humans.

Intermission over, Time for the second act.

Yesterday was one of those milestone birthdays. One that is usually approached with hand wringing, thoughts of sports cars never driven, adventures not achieved, peaks not climbed, depths never dived, distances not traveled, sights not seen and thoughts never expressed to people no longer around. I count myself fortunate, because I am not feeling (many of) those thoughts.

Sure, there are things that I have not yet done, and I realize that, at this point, I may not get the chance because of prior choices or physical abilities. But, I struggle to find any significant hint of regret for choices made in the first half century of my life.

I spent my birthday with my wife and kids, family, and a significant number of my great friends both recent and from times when I was in diapers (more on diapers later.) My parents were not able to be here for it, but they wished my a "Happy Birthday" by phone. I wish they could have been here, but I know there thoughts were with me and mine were with them.

My wonderful wife spent a lot of time and energy planning a party for me that turned out fantastic. Now, planning a party for me is not an easy task. I consider myself easy to please. As long as nobody punches me, or is verbally abusive, I have a good time and enjoy myself. I like parties, but I don't feel comfortable being the focus of attention at events. So, throwing a party in my honor is probably a very nerve wracking task for someone to attempt.

Fortunately, one of my tasks leading up to it was brewing lots of beer. Getting to share that with the guests was a highlight, and drinking some of it probably helped too.

So many people where so nice. Lots of good words, good conversation, great food, great company and low stress (for me anyway) .

To my friends and family. Thanks for making the last 50 years tops. I am looking forward to the next half century. Let do it.

P.S. The diapers were a gift from my son (thanks Zack.) I don't actually need them, but they may come in handy for a long road trip. Watch this space for details.

Spring

Is Spring here? You would think so by the warm, sunny Bay Area weather. I expect one more bout of cold, wet, windy weather before we actually hit that magical, yet arbitrary Vernal Equinox beginning of Spring.

I say arbitrary, not because it is picked out of the air, it is actually very precisely defined as the instant that the axis of rotation of the earth is not inclined (pointing) away from or towards the sun. It is the day where the length of daylight is roughly the same as the length of night. But I consider it arbitrary because the things we think of as harbingers of Spring don't pay any attention to that precise day. My grapevines have already started to show little fuzzy nibs that will soon bud and form canes. The temperature in the winery is warming up enough that the secondary, malolactic fermentation cultures will wake up and finish rounding out the sharp edges of last years Chardonnay vintage.

The only thing that is lagging is my motivation to begin my Spring time activities. Just after the new year, I went out and rough pruned the vines. Each of the vines are now starting to take on their own individual shapes and personalities. I was able to leave a few spurs on each arm, and choose arms that are roughly leaving the cordon in the direction I wanted. In the next few weeks I will do a fine pruning to select the 2 spurs that will become the basis of this years harvest.

I will be a bit more proactive this year on mildew protection. The sun and weather patterns on the vineyard have been very conducive to powdery mildew, and it has robbed me of much of my yield. This year, the goal is to break that cycle.

Watch this space to see how well I can follow that plan.

What is wrong with this picture?

Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor has been speaking about two economies on his blog.

If you were to walk into a classroom and see 100 students. And let's say 98 of those students are unable to keep up, their grades falling farther and farther behind, GPA dropping, struggling to get a grip on the course work. But, 2 of those students are getting all the instructor's attention they want or need, they have the textbooks they need to excel beyond grade level. Without the burden of the other 98 students, they are completing more and more work, getting farther and farther ahead. Making it less and less likely that the lower 98 will ever catch up.

What might be your initial assessment of the the problem? It probably wouldn't be that the lower 98 are all just lazy. And, it probably wouldn't be that some kids just naturally rise to the top and the two getting all the classroom resources are just more deserving of it.

You probably would think that something was a bit out of whak. The 2 lucky top students may well have been the brightest kids in the class. Catering to them might have given the quickest rewards to the teacher. They may have been the easiest to serve and work with. Initially, there might have only been a few grade points between the upper 2 and that of the lower 98, but over time, the neglect added up, took its toll and now it seems like you have two different classrooms of different kinds of students.

That might be a strained analogy for where our economy is right now, but when you look at the details, it isn't too far off.

We have two separate economies that have grown farther and farther apart. And, you can not just attribute it to the productive and entrepreneurial members at the top just being better at what they do.

If we all were experiencing the same economy, you would expect most participants to experience a similar rise and fall of fortune. Those at the higher end may see greater spoils, those at the lower end less. But, it would generally trend in similar directions. We are not seeing that at all. The 2% at the top are seeing fantastic growth and fortune. Everyone else is sinking just a little bit closer to flunking out.

Good news?

The Commerce Department just released a report that said U.S Corporate Profits Were the Highest on Record Last Quarter. Highest ever. The highest since they began keeping records 60 years ago.

That is great! Right? U.S. Businesses are doing fantastic. You know what that means, people who work for those companies get more. Well, maybe not all of the people who work there, but the executives do. Yes, executive bonuses are up too! That's good, right? That money goes right back into the economy. A rising tide lifts all boats you know. Except that tide seems to just be lifting the stock market economy. But that is good, right? Except for some reason everybody on this side had to pull their money out of the stock market to pay their bills. But at least Wall Street is getting a boost. Wall street bonuses are expected to rise 5% this year. Your bonus went up 5% this year, right?

Have you ever heard the phrase: "We'll, I've never worked for a poor man". There are more and more poor men out there and less and less rich bosses. Maybe that is why there are more and more people without work.

Something is really out of whak here. It almost seems like the top 2 percent and the rest of us are playing by different rules. And the teacher can't be blind to this. Can she?

What is wrong with this picture?

Goodbye Macie

My last post about our dear pet Macie, who passed today.

Macie came to us from abuse.

Her previous owner, after eviction, left her to fend for herself in the back yard of their abandoned house. When the landlord discovered her, she was living on a dripping faucet for water and stones to fill her stomach to abate her hunger. I don't know what their situation was. Maybe they had no choice, but many times I have wished that they reach the level of despair that they thrusted our beautiful Macie into. I hate few people, but because of what they subjected our eventual family member to, I hate them. I have felt no remorse for that emotion.

We were fortunate to be able to provide her with a family that loved her without bounds. She gave us more that we gave her. Her love for our family was complete and without reservation. A dog's love for their owner always exceeds what can be reciprocated, and Macie gave us, her adopted family, her unconditional love.

Every family member is unique, and she had her unique and special kinship with each member. Each of our children had their own relationship with Macie, and she with them. Neither more or less special.

Life is cruel. When a pet ages at a rate 7 times faster that their owners, the pain of premature loss is expected, inevitable, but always without preparation.

Because of bone cancer, her life had become just a string of trips between places to lay down, and painful trips at that. Having become lame in her right rear leg, she made valiant trips into the yard to assert her territory against the interloping deer and hikers. But, I worried that, at any day, she may not be able to make it back up the hill and stairs to her throne on the deck. My dread of a phone call from my wife that our ever noble sentry was unable to climb the stairs back to her post weighted on me.

As her family, we made the choice that she was living an existence that was without pleasure, and with much pain, we decided to let her go. We chose to postpone the trip to the vet that day, but for probably selfish reasons, we made the choice to go to the vet hospital the next morning instead of that Saturday. I feel a little bit guilty about that choice, because the decision to wait another day, was for our benefit, not hers. That night was painful for us and her. I continually woke to hear her throughout the night, in a restless, painful sleep.

The morning was mechanical. Punctuated by emotion, but never a second though. It was time, but not without tears. We left before the kids were awake, arrived before the vet and sat with Macie in the car. Normally, she would have been apprehensive on a trip like this, but the pain and discomfort probably consumed and distracted her.

I went in to take care of the paper work while my wife waited in the car with her. I was fine until the vet asked: "How are you?" I couldn't answer, and she didn't ask again.

When it was time, I lifted Macie from the car to the ground. On level surfaces, she could walk by keeping her good rear leg centered and she had a labored skip. She followed us, unquestioning, into the room with a place for us to sit with her on the floor. We talked with the vet briefly, they took her for just a few minutes to insert a catheter which was to be use shortly. Then she returned to us for a final 10 minutes for us to thank her for the last 11 years she had given us.

When the vet came back in, he explained the procedure. We could sit with her as he administered a drug that would lead to her falling asleep and then quickly passing away.

As we sat there with her. He injected her and there was no indication of discomfort, at least for her. The hardest part for me was, as soon as the procedure began, Macie turned to me and looked directly in my eyes. I knew that look. She was looking at me partially for me to reassure her that everything was OK. But at the same time, she was reassuring me that everything was OK. We where doing what we thought was best for her, and she was telling us that she loved and appreciated our care of her.

Goodbye Macie.

Where are we, how did we get here and where are we going

A friend of mine, who many times has a point of view 180 degrees from my one, sent me a link (see here) to an opinion piece about a the failings of the current president in the area of transparency. Transparency was a term used a lot during the campaign as a goal that would be one of many that would differentiate this administration from the previous.

The context of the article, and more so the comment sent to me with the link to the article, was the purported loss of sheen that the current administration has in the eyes of many of those who made it possible. I say purported because I believe that pointing out exaggerated, unrealistic expectations is a political strategy used by the both sides to make it easier to show what they want to eventually refer to as failures. Exaggeration and caricature are carry a lot of power for quick, content-light attack

I think I may have been a bit more of a realist all along, and did not expect some amazing transformation of our government that some did. I have to say that I had high hopes, and muted expectations. And, I would say that my expectations ...have all been met or exceeded, and my hopes, although not been met, will continue to be my hopes for us going forward.

I have been disappointed with the progress we have made on issues that are important to me, but at the same time understand better some of the compromises that have led to both the inaction and some of the achievements

Overall, I would give this administration a B-, but that beets the range from a C+ to a D- from the previous 5 administrations before this one. Keeping with the academic theme, the school year us less than half over, and it looks like their grade is improving. And, I have full confidence that they will achieve the advanced degree during a second term.