Planet Ralph

My letter against SOPA

2012-01-20T10:19:00.000-08:00

January 20, 2012

Dear Representative Schrader:
Dear Senator Wyden:
Dear Senator Merkley:

I urge you to vote against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate equivalent. I believe that this legislation will lead to regulation of the Internet and the abridgment of its freedom. I believe there will be less creativity and innovation if it is too easy for copyright holders to sue for nominal or inadvertent misuse of copyrights.

The music, movie, and publishing industries have a history of seeking excessive copyright length, attempting to restrict fair use, and attempting to restrict the size and use of the public domain. These industries will leverage any law to restrict competition even where the competition does not rely on stolen intellectual property. A copyright system only has value if it actually increases innovation and creates a robust body of intellectual capital in the public domain. It should not be a tool for entrenched interests and accumulators of intellectual property created generations ago.

Please vote NO!

Sincerely

College Football Playoff for 2010

2011-07-11T05:53:00.000-07:00

I gave my proposal for a playoff in a previous post:
Ralph's Playoff

Let's play it out for the 2010 Season while we await the 2011 Football Season.

November 28, 2010
The NCAA Committee makes its 16 At Large Selections for the Play in Round of the 2010 NCAA College Football Playoffs:
1. Stanford
2. Ohio State
3. Arkansas
4. Michigan State
5. LSU
6. Boise State
7. Missouri
8. Oklahoma State
9.Virginia Tech
10. Alabama
11. Texas A&M
12. Utah
13. Mississippi State
14. Arizona
15. West Virginia
16. Maryland

Saturday December 4th, 2010
Play in Round. The Play in Round is on the same day as the league championship games. Play-in games are at the home field of the top seed.

Play-in round:
Champions of conferences without a playoff are automatically seeded as top 6 teams. At large selection number determines other ranks for seeding purposes. Teams from same conference don't play each other.

Pac 10 Champion versus At Large: Oregon vs. Maryland, Winner: Oregon
Big 10 Champion versus At Large: Wisconsin vs. West Virgnia, Winner: Wisconsin
Big East Champion versus At Large: UConn vs. Arizona, Winner: Arizona
Mountain West Champion versus At Large: TCU vs. Mississippi State, Winner: TCU
WAC Champion versus At Large: Nevada vs. Utah, Winner: Nevada
Sun Belt Champion versus At Large: Florida International vs. Texas A&M, Winner: Texas A&M
At Large versus At Large: Stanford vs. Alabama, Winner: Stanford
At Large versus At Large: Ohio State vs. Virginia Tech., Winner: Ohio State
At Large versus At Large: Arkansas vs. Oklahoma State, Winner: Oklahoma State
At Large versus At Large: Michigan State vs. Missouri, Winner: Michigan State
At Large versus At Large: LSU vs. Boise State: Winner: Boise State

League Championships
SEC--Auburn vs. South Carolina, Winner: Auburn
Big 12--Oklahoma vs. Nebraska, Winner: Oklahoma
ACC--Florida St. vs. Virginia Tech, Winner: Virginia Tech
Conf. USA--SMU vs. Central Florida, Winner: Central Florida
MAC--Northern Illinois vs. Miami Ohio: Miami Ohio
League Championships determine 5 of 16 Tournament participants

Saturday December 11th, 2010, 1st round of 16 team playoff.
Seedings respect traditional conference/geographic bowl alignments for New Years day bowls where possible.

Rose Bowl Bracket
1. Oregon vs. 4. Boise State, Winner: Oregon
2. Wisconsin vs. 3. Miami Ohio, Winner: Wisconsin

Orange Bowl Bracket
1. Virginia Tech vs. 4. Central Florida, Winner: Virginia Tech
2. Oklahoma State vs. 3. Arizona, Winner: Oklahoma State

Suger Bowl Bracket
1. Auburn vs. 4. Michigan St., Winner: Auburn
2. Stanford vs. 3. TCU, Winner: Stanford

Cotton Bowl Bracket
1. Oklahoma vs. 4. Nevada, Winner: Oklahoma
2. Texas A&M vs. 3. Ohio State, Winner: Ohio State

New Years Day, 2011
Rose Bowl
Oregon vs. Wisconsin, Winner: Oregon
Orange Bowl
Virginia Tech vs. Oklahoma State, Winner: Oklahoma State
Suger Bowl
Auburn vs. Stanford, Winner: Auburn
Cotton Bowl
Oklahoma vs. Ohio State, Winner: Ohio State

Saturday, January 15th (first Saturday more than 5 days after New Years)
Fiesta Bowl
Oregon vs. Oklahoma State, Winner: Oregon
Gator Bowl
Auburn vs. Ohio State, Winner: Auburn

Saturday, January 22nd
True National Championship Game
Oregon vs. Auburn, Winner: Auburn

Even though I think we probably got the right champion in 2010/2011 through the BCS process, I think a playoff process would have been more fun, more fair, and more profitable.

Charter School for Lake Oswego

2011-07-10T14:02:00.000-07:00

The Lake Oswego School board is pressing forward with plans to close 3 elementary schools and expand Junior High to 6th grade. They have already done the one part of the plan that saves significant money, closing one elementary school. Closing the remaining 2 elementary schools and expanding Junior High will be more or less cost neutral but is a long held goal of Dr. Korach, the superintendent.

If the school board presses forward with closing schools and putting 6th graders in Junior High, I suggest that parent and community groups push forward with another option for families: a charter K-8 school on the Palisades campus.

The school board may take some convincing, but Oregon law specifies a process in ORS 338 that allows the sponsoring group to go around the school board if the school board is obstructionist. The City Council and the Lake Oswego Schools Foundation may also help push in the right direction since they give millions to the school district.

If two more schools are closed, a charter would be very positive for the district in helping relieve the classroom shortage, keeping kids in the district who may otherwise leave because their schools are closing, and providing another strong educational option to attract families to Lake Oswego.

Here is my thinking on a charter--

Draft Mission Statement:

Lake Oswego K-8 Charter will be:

-A small K-8 school focused on helping students achieve their potential through authentic relationships among students, teachers, and families.
-A school that offers students everything they need to be fully prepared to achieve their potential in high school.
-A school where students can safely explore their interests and values knowing a caring community supports and surrounds them

Capacity and configuration:
-Lake Oswego K-8 Charter would ultimately have 9 grades with 26-32 students in each grade for a total of 234 to 288 students.
-In the first year the school would have grades K and 1-7 adding 8th grade in the subsequent year
-If over subscribed at any grade level, a lottery would be held as required by law
-if under subscribed, 2 grades would be combined to achieve class sizes of 26-32 students
-Each grade would have one main teacher and aids or parent helpers as budget and volunteer commitments allow
-The school would have one foreign language teacher who would teach at all grade levels with a focus on 6th, 7th, and 8th so that most students would have achieved 1 or 2 years of high school foreign language
-The school would have one specialized math teacher and would offer at least two levels of math in 7th-8th grade so that all students capable of accelerated math will have completed algebra in 8th grade.
-7th and 8th grade students would work with both grade teachers, the foreign language teacher, and the math teacher to get focused subject instruction to prepare for high school
-The charter school would work so it's students could participate in district programs in music and sports where possible.

With the closing of 2 additional schools I would expect many families from Bryant, Palisades, and River Grove to choose to move to the charter. Under Oregon law, students from nearby districts could also choose the charter without needing to get approval from their districts. The other schools in the Lake Oswego district would benefit from the competition and the relief of pressure on classroom space.

I hope interested parents and others will move forward with this proposal or something else to put pressure on the school board to look out for the interests of kids and families ahead of the interests of teachers and administrators.

Why Lake Oswego Junior Highs Won't Close

2011-03-05T12:23:00.000-08:00

With better educational and social outcomes, cost savings, and better community/school relationships, why won't the Lake Oswego junior highs close? (See my previous blog post where I make the case for closing them.) In short, the reason junior highs won't close (and exist at all), is that they are great for teachers and administrators.

Prestige and salaries tend to be higher for junior high principals than K-8 principals. The Vice Principal position is a great stepping stone position not readily available in a K-8 setting. Junior High teachers also have a bit more prestige than 7th and 8th grade teachers in elementary schools. Teachers can teach the classes they are interested in and avoid classes they aren't interested in. In a large junior high school, bad teachers can hide out for years as the active, "in the know" parents avoid them and the less "in the know" parents don't have the power to do any damage to their standing.

In a junior high setting, accountability for student outcomes is muted for teachers who only teach a student in one of 6+ classes. For teachers, the burden of communicating with parents on routine matters and dealing with behavioral and other problems are offloaded to junior high counselors. While this is a convenience for teachers, it blurs accountability even more. In an environment with 2 classes of 7th graders and 2 classes of 8th graders accountability and responsibility is concentrated and clear.

With students from multiple schools mingled into two junior high schools after 5th or 6th grade, it is harder to see differences in schools and hold the schools accountable. With 4 or 5 schools sending 8th graders to each high school, it will be very easy for the high school teachers, administrators, and involved parents to see which K-8 schools are doing a great job and which schools are doing less well. Lack of accountability and visibility into failures doesn't serve students and parents, but it does make teachers and administrators lives easier.

I hope that the pain of closing three elementary schools that are very important to their communities will cause parents and the community to think again about the choice in front of Lake Oswego schools. I hope the idea of expanding the problematic Junior Highs to younger and more vulnerable students scares the community into positive action.

I respect the work administrators and advisory groups have done to come up with alternatives to save money for the Lake Oswego school district. I think the entrenched interests of administrators and teachers have influenced the recommendations away from closing junior highs and toward closing elementary schools. I am not optimistic the best choice will be made.

Why Waluga and Lake Oswego Junior Highs Should Close

2011-03-05T11:00:00.000-08:00

Lake Oswego school district proposes closing 3 of our elementary schools and expanding Junior High to include 6th grade. Having experienced Lake Oswego elementary and junior high schools I can attest this is the wrong direction. The elementary schools in Lake Oswego fulfill the promise of public education by educating students, creating close communities of students and parents, and adding value to the community. The Junior Highs are much less successful in the their assigned role of educating adolescents at a high level and helping them transition to High School. There is no reason to expand them and good reasons to close them.

The school district should keep all 9 elementary schools open and close the two junior high Schools. The elementary schools should be expanded to K-8. Excess capacity can be reduced by making 6 of the elementary schools single track (one class per grade). That would make room for the 7th and 8th grades at the physically smaller schools. Activities such as band, football, and cheer leading that require an assembly of greater numbers of students can be scheduled either in the early morning or late afternoon when students can be bussed to central locations. Foreign languages can be accommodated by busing students to concentrated locations, distance learning, and focusing particular schools on particular languages. Bryant/Waluga could easily accommodate a double track (two classes per grade) k-8 school and centralized activities. Uplands/Lake Oswego Junior High School could also be configured as a double track k-8 school with ample room for facilities for central activities. Lake Grove and several other schools are physically large enough to accommodate a double track K-8 program and extra activities.

Junior high is a bad concept and as executed in the Lake Oswego district has bad outcomes. Ages 12, 13, 14 are very difficult years for adolescents. It is the worst time to rip them out of a small community where they have real personal relationships and put them in a high stakes social environment where cliques and superficial popularity reign supreme. Junior high creates an ideal environment for predators who sell drugs and sexually exploit children. It also creates an ideal environment for marketers who prey on children's insecurities to sell clothes, gadgets, and other items promoted to increase social standing.

My experience as a parent and working with Lake Oswego district junior high students at a church group gives me a negative opinion of the social environment at the Junior High Schools. I would say that at Waluga junior high, students who try to join the popular crowd are personally offered drugs, are aware of drug use by fellow students, and feel peer pressure to express tolerance and interest in drugs. Students who join the popular crowd are also aware of sexual activity by fellow students, feel peer pressure to have sex, and may have been offered drugs as part of situations designed to induce them to relax their sexual boundaries. I believe that in a K through 8 schools the social pressures could be reduced in this time of insecurity and social growth. Students could feel somewhat safer making healthy choices and standing up for their individual interests because they would be among people they have known longer. At the very least, the drug trade would have 9 schools to visit and establish contacts in instead of 2. Those 9 schools would be smaller and students would have long term relationships with teachers and other students. Dealers would have much less freedom of action than they currently enjoy and more risk.

At Waluga today teachers brag that they create teams of 3 teachers who discuss student progress and coordinate lessons. In a K-8 environment, the norm for 7 and 8th grade education would be a small team of teachers coordinating lessons and intimately involved in individual students progress. Specific teachers would be accountable for student success and their success could be measured year after against peers in 8 other schools.

Riverdale school district demonstrates that academic outcomes in K-8 can be as good or better than in a Junior High. In fifth grade testing fewer Riverdale students than Lake Oswego students are proficient in Reading, Math, and Science. In 8th Grade testing the percentage of Riverdale students proficient in Reading is equal. In Math and Science the percentage in Rierdale is higher than in Lake Oswego. In the Riverdale K-8 school the percentage proficient in Reading, Math, Science rose between 5th and 8th Grade. In the Lake Oswego district, percentage proficient fell in all three areas fell between 5th and 8th grade.

I am not an expert on school finance, but I believe that closing 2 Junior highs with their counselors, vice principals, and other admininstrative staff would save more money than closing 3 elementary schools. Even after accounting for busing students for activities and specialized classes there would be savings since there would be less transport need for getting kids to Junior High.

The neighborhood schools would be an even more intimate part of the neighborhood and family's would be even more engaged and inclined to support schools that students attend for 9 years. Athletics for 7th and 8th graders could be simplified with 9 schools that can play each other in Basketball and Volleyball.

I respect the work the administrators and advisory groups have done to come up with alternatives to save money for the Lake Oswego school district. However, I believe the current recommendation is a bad choice.

Next post I'll talk about why the Junior Highs will probably expand to the detriment of adolescents and 3 neighborhoods will lose their community schools to the detriment of the neighborhoods and their property values.

Two Tiered Health Systems

2009-09-04T17:03:00.000-07:00

In Britain 80% of the people rely solely on the National Health System. The elite 20% have private insurance and use an elite private health system without lines, with nicer rooms, and better service. That is a two tier system.

We have a two tier system in the U.S.. The difference is that in the U.S., the middle class is part of the top tier.

The danger for the middle class:
The top 20% are confident that under a public health system they will still have access to elite health care. They are probably eager for a system where they mingle less with the middle class. So, that's 20% that aren't afraid.

The bottom 20% figure they will be no worse off than they are now with the mishmash of health providers they have access to and it may be better because there will be more political interest in the facilities and procedures they use. So, 40% of the country is okay with and perhaps eager to move to something more like a British system.

The 60% who will drop down a level better keep fighting and not be fooled by soothing rhetoric. Otherwise, they will find out what kind of health care the elite think is adequate for the lesser classes.

Seven book--A book about the number Seven

2009-09-04T12:05:00.000-07:00

Our friend David Eastis has just come out with the book "7 The Magical, Amazing, and Popular Number 7". I'll write more about the seven book once I actually get it in my hands, but the web site is www.sev7ven.com. If you are a septophile this book about seven should be of interest.

Good news from the auto bailout

2009-06-06T15:00:00.000-07:00

A little good news from the bailout. Roger Penske is buying Saturn and a Chinese company is buying Hummer. These are both really positive steps for GM and car buyers.

Saturn has a really cool opportunity to take cars that are built in other markets by companies that don't have U.S. distribution and bring them to the U.S.. Saturn could also specify cars they want built by Chinese or Indian manufacturers much like Apple specifies an IPod or a Mac. Either way, the Saturn brand stands for a different car buying and service experience so they add to the cars they sell.

Penske could bring the Smart Car into the Saturn fold since he already has U.S. distribution rights. He could play up Saturn's GM built hybrid and small cars. Saturn could look like a fuel economy and technology leader as well as a leader in car buying experience.

The Saturn brand can probably avoid the taint of GM costing taxpayers billions because Saturn has been deliberately kept distant as a brand from GM and Saturn is now out of the whole bankruptcy/bailout mess.

Hummer will be able to continue to offer their unique vehicles and people who like that sort of thing will have an opportunity to buy the sort of the thing they like. There is export potential for the U.S. plants and potential for the Chinese company to eventually build Hummer products in China and sell worldwide. Of course, like Ford, this Chinese company will have to negotiate with the union that owns their competitors. The Chinese company has the leverage that they can just shut down the plants and move the production to China. So, maybe the workers at the Hummer plants will make the national union give some ground.

What should have happened to Chrysler

2009-05-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

It looks like Chrysler is likely to emerge from Bankruptcy shortly. That surprises me because I don't think Fiat brings much to the table and, without freeing itself of UAW domination, Chrysler is clearly not a viable company. I guess with enough taxpayer money, anything is possible. Until Chrysler is merged with the other taxpayer financed UAW payoff mechanism (GM), it will continue to rack up losses for the taxpayer.

What should have happened? The parts of Chrysler should be sold off free of UAW contract obligation and dealer obligations. That is what bankruptcy is all about. Factories, trademarks, parts, and real estate should be sold to whoever will pay for them to satisfy Chrysler's true obligations. The public will get a more competitive and innovative set of car companies.

Chrysler should be sold out of bankruptcy in 5 parts:

Jeep: This is where the real value lies. Jeep should sell for 2 to 3 Billion Dollars with Mahindra and Mahindra of India being the most obvious but not the only possible buyers. Kia, Honda, and Nissan could all benefit from owning the Jeep name.

Dodge Trucks: This is much less valuable than Jeep, but is still probably he second most valuable part of Chrysler. The Sprinter van, Dodge Ram Pick up trucks, and SUV's. Maybe 500 Million to 1 Billion.

Voyager/Caravan Minivans: Chrysler's minivan is an up-to-date model that sells well in a marketplace that Ford, Volkswagon, General Motors, and other automakers aren't in in an effective way. Any one of those companies could jump start their minivan line by buying the original at a bargain price. Bargain price would be right around 500 Million. Volkswagon already resells a private label version of the Chrysler Minivan so they would be a great candidate.

Chrysler automobiles: This is the "and the rest" of Chryslers car line. Dodge Challenger (they would have to drop the Dodge part unless this was bought with Dodge trucks), Chrysler 300, PT Cruiser, and all the other models in Chrysler's line-up and the brands in its rich history. Could be valuable to a Chinese or Indian company building a brand line-up. Up to 500 Million but probably less.

Global Electric Motor cars: These are around town electric cars. I don't know if this helps a company with fuel economy averages or not. Worth something in any case.

I think sealed bids without government pressure would have gotten the secured creditors 3 to 4 Billion and taken the warranty obligations off the government's and creditors hands (gaining the relationships with existing owners makes taking on the warranty obligations generally a win for buyers of the brand names). That is more than the 2.6 Billion the creditors got with Obama's blunt warning that the government would punish anyone who tried to break up their deal with Fiat.

The courts didn't think this was clear enough an expropriation that they should block the deal. It's an extreme long shot that the Supreme Court would rule the Federal Government doesn't have the power to take over a business or overrule the bankruptcy court and find that the secured creditors aren't being fairly compensated. They could find that the president doesn't have the power to do it without an act of congress that actually authorizes it, but I think an act of congress would be forthcoming so that would just represent a small delay.

Its a big loss for taxpayers and car buyers that the governement is propping up losers and not letting new companies with new technology and aggressiveness re-assemble the parts of the auto industry. We are losing out on the gain from creative destruction while magnifying the losses.

Five Guys versus In-N-Out

2009-05-25T17:41:00.001-07:00

With Five Guys Burgers and Fries open in Beaverton and West Linn, OR, it is time to compare the two good tasting fast food burgers. First, my 12 year old daughter's opinion, "Dad, there is no comparison, In-N-Out is way better."

My opinion is more nuanced. Both have good testing, fresh, never frozen Hamburger. The Five Guys patty is a little more satisfying probably because it is a little larger. The In-N-Out Bun is better toasted and better matched to the size of the rest of the burger. The Five Guys Bun is just too large compared to the patty and even though it is toasted, it isn't toasted enough. Even with a double, it seems like a lot of bun for the meat.

The Five Guys burger is also too large overall. At In-N-Out a single is great if you aren't very hungry and a double is a large meal. At Five Guys, a "small cheeseburger" is a large meal. A double or normal "cheeseburger" in Five Guys language is too big under almost any circumstances. Their fries are similarly over sized, but since a family of 5 can share the large fries or a family of 3 can share the "small" fries, the size is less relevant.

Five Guys has a better selection of toppings, including green peppers and mushrooms which aren't available at In-N-Out.

Both In-N-Out and Five Guys have fresh cut and fried potatoes, not frozen. At In-N-Out you can see them cutting up the fries in the Window, at Five Guys they have bags of fries in the store. In-N-Out cuts there fries to a very kid friendly McDonalds style fry. They taste like McDonald's fries did in the sixties when they used to be fresh cut in the store. Five Guys has beefier style of fries with a bit of skin on the ends. They are fresh and very good. Five Guys also offers a Cajun style fry which has some spice seasoning added to the fry. I like the regular fry better, but it is nice to have a spicier option. In-N-Out wins for Kids Fries, but the Five Guys fry is a bit better for an adult.

For Milk Shakes, In-N-Out wins by default. Five Guys has no milkshakes. In-N-Out Shakes are a real plus since they are very creamy and the chocolate shake has a very good chocolate flavor.

Five Guys has Hot Dogs, which I haven't tried, but it gives you another option. Five Guys also has free peanuts while you wait.

In-N-Out always has a drive through. The Oregon Five Guys do not have drive throughs. The drive through is very convenient picking up dinner for the family. Five Guys is always crowded with a line and ussually a little jostling for a seat. We have always found a seat, but is more hectic than picking up food for the family and bringing it home.

Both In-N-Out and Five Guys are somewhat premium priced compared to Burger King or McDonalds (and well worth it) but Five Guys is a little more premium priced. I am ussually surprised how much it costs to feed my family of five. I think In-N-Out is a bit better deal.

Final verdict? If there was an In-N-Out in Beaverton, Lake Oswego, or Tualatin, they would get quite a bit more of our burger business than Five Guys. But Five Guys is a really great addition to the Oregon burger scene and they will get most of our business until In-N-Out comes to Oregon.

When will In-N-Out come to Oregon? Now is a great time. They could get great leases and land deals for the 5 or 10 locations they would need to make their logistics and distribution work. In-N-Out is not franchised it is corporate owned, so I have to believe cash is available for a slam dunk expansion like the Portland area. They must have noticed that the Five Guys in Beaverton jumped to the top of the sales charts for all Five Guys location. They also must know that taste will tip toward Five Guys as familiarity breeds preference.

What about Burgerville? Burgerville is a fresh, local food concept location with frozen beef! It seems a bit crazy. The Burgerville patty is bland tasting and just doesn't keep with the rest of the quality ingrediants the have. Burgerville needs to make "Fresh, Never Frozen" a mantra for the Beef and the fries and push the local food conept they have going. If they did that, they could compete with Five Guys and even In-N-Out on the basis of drive throughs, milkshakes, hometown business, and a wider menu. With bland, frozen hamburgers they are toast when In-N-Out comes to the Portland, Oregon area.

BCS must die--College Football Playoff Proposal

2009-05-12T19:24:00.000-07:00

I know every college football fan has a playoff proposal in their heads. The 2008-2009 College football season was a true testament to the futility of the BCS. The New Years Day games were both limited in number and interest, an undefeated team didn't get a chance to play for the "National Title", and the "National Title" contestants probably weren't the two best teams in College Football.

My playoff proposal preserves the importance and prestige of the New Years Day bowl games and should make boatloads of money for the power conferences. The boatloads of the money part is what I think could get it accepted. So, here it is:

-16 team playoff with a play-in round for all at-large teams and the conference winners from conferences without a conference champion. So, 32 teams have an opportunity to win their way to the championship.
-The play-in round takes place the same weekend as conference championship games.
-The round of 16 takes place Christmas Eve and December 23.
-The round of 8 is on New Years day with 4 traditional New Years bowl games including the Rose Bowl.
-The final 4 is the first Saturday that is more than 6 days after New Years Day.
-The Championship game is the next Saturday.

Management would be by an NCAA committee who would select at-large teams, seedings, play off locations, and negotiate with the big bowls which match-ups they get New Years Day.

The play-in round--Same weekend as conference championships, would include Friday, and even Sunday games if needed. Seeded so conference champions get the top seeds and play lowest seeded at-large teams. 11 play-in games plus 5 conference championships. That gives 16 at large spots to make sure the major conferences and Notre Dame have every opportunity to be over-represented. All the conference champions have an opportunity to win their way to the next round, so even the Mountain West couldn't complain. If the PAC 10 and Big 10 still are not advantaged enough to get them on board, their champions could get a bye into the round of 16. It would only cost 2 of the at-large spots, leaving 14. The play-in round doesn't lengthen the season at all, many teams already play that weekend in championship games.

This round would be played at the higher seeded teams home stadium or alternate if that stadium doesn't meet playoff minimum standards.

Pac 10 Champion versus At large
Big 10 Champion versus At large
Big East Champion versus At large
Moutain West Champion versus At large
WAC Champion versus At large
Sun Belt Champion versus At large
At large versus At large
At large versus At large
At large versus At large
At large versus At large
At large versus At large
SEC Championship
Big 12 Championship
ACC Championship
MAC Championship
Conference USA Championship

Round of 16. This is Christmas Eve and December 23 and involves 8 games among the 16 winners of the play-in round. All teams would be re-seeded for this round. All games would be neutral site bowl games. Sites and match-ups would be selected by the committee. This is where all the minor bowls would go.

Round of 8. 4 New years Day bowls! Preserve the tradition and just as importantly the money. These are neutral site and are selected by the committee in consultation with bowl committee. Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and Cotton Bowl restored to prominence in selecting a true National Champion.

Final 4. 2 bowls the first Saturday more than 5 days after New Years day. The Fiesta Bowl and another bowl.

National Championship Game. 1 week later. Only extending the College football season 1 week from what it is now.

The cost: 2 teams play an extra 3 games over what the max played now, 2 more teams play an extra two games, 4 teams play 1 extra game and the season lasts one more week. The benefits: more money, tradition, a meaningful post-season, fair representation for minor conferences, over representation for money conferences, a real champion. It's got to be worth it.

Confirmation on El Pollo Loco Beaverton

2009-05-10T16:03:00.000-07:00

This link confirms what they told me at the Wood Village El Pollo Loco. The Beaverton location is opening at the end of June:

El Pollo Loco restaurant closes its doors

However, the Vancouver, WA location is abruptly closed. I wondered if they moved the equipment from the Vancouver location to the Beaverton location. It was odd that the building in Beaverton has appeared finished so long but not opened. In this economic environment I have assumed the franchisee is out of cash. The building has been for sale but the price seems way out of line for the building (over 1 million). Even if you assume the lease is good for the duration, the returns don't seem high enough to justify taking any risk at all.

If you can only afford equipment for one location, the Beaverton location is a much better choice than the one they had in Vancouver. The Beaverton location is close to the Five Guys that became the highest grossing Five Guys location in the country soon after opening.

Looking forward to being able to pick up an El Pollo dinner on the way home...

Chrysler bankruptcy, good; liquidation better

2009-05-03T20:55:00.001-07:00

I'm glad Chrysler made it into bankruptcy court so that the creditors will get some protection from the law instead of having to rely on politics and executive fiat (pun intended). I must admit I was disgusted with President Obama's remarks about the _secured_ creditors unwillingness to share the "sacrifices" that other "stakeholders" were making.

Under the law the secured creditors are the first ones who should get any payout before any one else takes money out of the company. To steal their money is one thing; to use the prestige and power of the presidency to demonize them for asking for what is theirs under the law is something else. I hate to see such unfairness and I hate to see the presidency demeaned in an attempt to disguise base theft. We didn't elect Blagojevich president, I hope.

So, what's happening here and why do I say liquidation would be better? The government is trying to keep the UAW firmly in control of Chrysler so they can continue the UAW brokered auto monopoly that has enriched union leaders, auto executives, politicians and various hangers on for many years. The expense of it has been borne by car consumers who today pay hundreds of dollars more per car compared to what a competitive market would produce and get less innovation than a competitive U.S. market would produce. As Blagojevich would say, I've got this f'en Auto Industry and its f'en golden.

Having a domestic monopoly to keep it comfortable and powerful labor unions to keep it poor, the industry has fallen far behind and to keep paying millions to the union executives, lawyers, auto executives, and politicians taxpayers are going to have to start kicking in. The stockholders and unsecured creditors have been sucked dry. That leaves the taxpayers paying Billions in tax dollars to prop up the monstrosity known as the U.S. auto industry.

So, how would a Chrysler liquidation help? Chrysler has valuable assets:
The Jeep Brand
A very extensive dealer network
Other brands
Technology, in particular truck and SUV technology
Global Electric Motor cars producing neighborhood electric vehicles
Factories, parts inventory, car inventory, etc.

In a liquidation foreign auto makers could bid for those assets. Most importantly, they would bid for those assets unencumbered by UAW contracts or obligations and existing dealer obligations. I could imagine Hyundai/Kia greatly improving its dealer networks and taking advantage of the Jeep brand globally for 3 or 4 Billion dollars. How about India's Mahindra and Mahindra or Tata or a Chinese company? Any one of these companies building cars, trucks and SUV's in this country without the UAW would force GM and Ford to really compete, force the UAW to be reasonable and business like in its contracts and deliver value and innovation to the consumer. They would also build more cars here than a UAW controlled Chrysler ever will. With the UAW Chrysler is worthless and will only exist as long as taxpayers will continue feeding it.

And if I'm wrong and no one wants most of Chrysler? It's a couple million cars a year capacity out of an industry that is globally millions of cars overbuilt. It gives GM, Ford, and Toyota their best chance to prosper.

But it is the fear that the parts will be used by non-UAW car makers that keep politicians working overtime to keep Chrysler in the UAW fold. This effort was useful in showing how government control of the banks keeps them from pursuing their economic interests and gets them into line politically. The TARP banks wanted to accept the deal to keep Chrysler out of the hands of a bankruptcy judge who should apply the law and protect creditors. They didn't want the ire of this administration. I've got this f'en bank thing and its f'en golden.

I hope this bankruptcy judge is very courageous and applies the law. I hope foreign automakers and other entrepreneurs have the courage to make offers to the court for Chrysler's assets in liquidation. Obama's little rant was designed to show that people who get in the way of UAW sanctioned reorganization by taxpayer cash infusion and fiat will earn the administration's anger. Welcome to industrial policy Chicago style.

El Pollo Loco Beaverton Coming Soon!

2009-05-02T07:44:00.001-07:00

The El Pollo Loco that has been sitting empty in Beaverton, OR taunting flame broiled marinated chicken lovers on the West Side is going to open soon! According to staff at the El Pollo Loco in Wood Village, Oregon it is opening at the end of June. They told me this in English and I heard them tell other customers in Spanish. Two languages, so it must be true, right? It's still not on the El Pollo Loco web site, but they wouldn't lie to us, would they? Please let it be true!!!!!!!

Les Schwab, Wow

2009-05-02T06:53:00.001-07:00

Customer service that exceeds expectations is often smart business. Recently the low inflation warning light on my Kia Minivan lit up. I filled the tire at a gas station and went on my way. Later I noticed a nail stuck in the tire and put getting the tire fixed on my to do list.

My expectation--I would have to leave the car for a couple of hours, pay $20.00 or so to get the tire repaired. I generally buy tires at Costco. Costco will repair tires free if you bought the tires at Costco. But these are original tires, so Costco won't even repair the tire for a fee. So, Sears Auto Center, the Dealer, Les Schwab are the choices that come to mind. Last time I had a tire fixed it was Sunday, so my only choice was Sears Auto Center and it took half a day.

So, I decide I'll try Les Schwab. I figure I'll go after work and leave the car there since they close at 6:00 PM. The next day I'll take the train to work, and pick up the car after work.

I pull into Les Schwab at 5:30. As I'm walking up, the Les Schwab worker comes out to greet me. I tell him the problem, he looks at the tire and asks for my keys. I ask how long it will take, he tells me 15 minutes. In less than 15 minutes he comes out gives me my keys and asks me to come to the counter to sign the work order. I ask how much it will be, he says its no charge. I tell him I didn't buy the tires at Les Schwab, he tells me its still no charge.

So, where do I buy tires next time? I'm sure going to get them fixed at Les Schwab. I'll feel like a free loader if I buy tires at Costco and get them fixed at Les Schwab. So, unless their prices are totally out of line I'll feel compelled to buy tires at Les Schwab from now on.

Smart business decision to repair tires free. Good customer service to come out and serve the customer quickly when you are not busy with other customers. Nice for Les Schwab that their competitors have set my expectations for service very low.

Rescue Portuguese Water Dog

2009-03-01T10:48:00.000-08:00

I laughed when I saw that the Obamas want a "rescue" Portuguese Water Dog. My mom got a Portuguese Water Dog (PWD, Portie) puppy a couple of years ago. They had to wait 6 months and sign an agreement that basically made them the caretakers of the dog, not the owners. They can't transfer the dog to anyone else without the breeders approval, they were required to spay her, required to take various veterinary care of her, etc. etc..

Portuguese Water Dogs are a boutique breed. My impression is there are no "backyard breeders" both because there is no demand and because breeders are very careful who they allow to have their dogs.

I don't think there are rescue Portuguese Water Dogs. You really have to want one and have thought about it in order to get a Portie. If the Obamas find one, my guess is it will come from an Obama supporter who suddenly finds they can't take care of their one or two year old Portie and gets permission from the breeder to let the Obamas "rescue" it.

If they really want rescue, I think they will end up with a Labradoodle or some other more popular breed.

Update: After I wrote this I found the link for the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America rescue
http://www.pwdca.org/breed/rescue/
They say to try to contact the breeder first if you know of a dog in need of rescue. I'm guessing the rescue part of the club is not too busy....

Walmart Wages Not Virtuous?

2009-01-17T20:01:00.000-08:00

Commentators often imply that low wage employers are less virtuous than high wage employers. They make it seem like it is just a question of the employers generosity what wage rates they pay. In reality, low wage and high wage employers are seeking and employee different people. It is not obvious that a low wage model is less virtuous than a high wage model.

For example, McDonald's typically pays minimum wage to entry level employees. In California, In-N-Out pays significantly more than minimum wage to entry level employees. At In-N-Out, it is easy to see that the employees are more enthusiastic, work faster, and get your order right more often than McDonald's employees. So, why is it more virtuous hiring better employees who no doubt have other options? Isn't there virtue in hiring the first time employee, the employee who is a little slow, the employee from a disadvantage background who needs more training in customer service?

Walmart is the employer usually castigated for low wages. They hire more disabled, more people fresh off welfare, more people who just aren't productive enough to earn better wages than anybody else. It seems to me it is a great service to society to give these less productive people an opportunity to work. Costco pays better wages and has better benefits. Costco employees are efficient, friendly, and probably have a relatively long tenure at Costco. Costco employees have better alternative opportunities. Why is it so virtuous hiring better people at a better wage?

Paying higher wages is not virtuous, nor is it generous. It is a business strategy that can really pay off in better service, higher productivity, and lower training costs because employees stay longer.

Paying low wages is not stingy and it is not bad for the country or the economy. It is simply hiring the people who aren't yet productive enough to earn higher wages elsewhere. It involves investing in training and business processes that make those employees productive. It also means more turnover because once you have given employees an opportunity to learn to be productive and provide good service (or just show they can be productive and provide good service), employees can often earn better wages elsewhere. A cost to the low wage employer, but a very nice service to the economy.

Soltice Month, December 6th to January 5th

2008-12-14T19:34:00.001-08:00

We're in a month where the length of day is short and changes very little through month. I looked it up, the day gets 7 minutes shorter before the soltice, then 9 minutes longer from the Soltice through January 5th. In other words, it doesn't change noticably the wh0le 30 days! By contrast the day got shorter by over 50 minutes the last 30 days and gets longer by over 50 minutes the next 30 days. The sun was up about 8 hours and 45 minutes today and that is pretty much the way it is all month.

The fun thing was we had a beautiful snow fall today. The kids had a ball playing in the snow and the trees and houses were like a christmas card with snow and icicles.

How are you handling the short days?

Surviving Winter in the Portland Area

2008-11-17T22:38:00.000-08:00

Portland Winters are more about length of day than change in temperature. We're North of the 45th Parallel here, so the days shorten dramatically.

Midwinter is the 3 months of the year with the shortest days. It started about November 6th and goes through about February 6th. The midpoint of Midwinter is the shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice.

My tips for surviving the short days:

Get outside in the daylight every day. There are almost always dry parts of the day when you can spend a bit of time outside. Work is the tough thing here. Try to get out before work or at lunch.
Early to rise. You're missing daylight every minute you sleep past Sunrise. The daylight is important to your well being. Be aware of the Sunrise going on outside even if you are inside.
Early to bed. I find I'm ready to sleep early. Take advantage of the natural down time to catch up on sleep so you have as much energy as possible.
Open curtains, stay near windows. Get as much natural light as possible.
Use full spectrum lights indoors. When you have to rely on artificial light, get the full spectrum of light.
Take Vitamin D. With the short day and clouds, you're body might not produce enough from the available Sun light.
Find outdoor Winter activities you can enjoy. Skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, hiking, or hunting can help squeeze a lot of fun and light out of a short day.
Enjoy the Winter festivals. They are timed by long tradition to help you make it through the literally darkest days. These are times you can stay up late and draw on the extra sleep you get going to bed early most nights.
Put up Christmas lights so your house feels welcoming and fun when you come home in the dark at the end of a workday.
Take your vacation somewhere Sunny and/or with longer days during the midwinter or early Spring Season. Going to the Mountains counts because you will usually get more Sun than in the Valleys and you'll be doing more outdoor activities.

Seasonal affective disorder, where people feel down during the darker part of the year, is very common. If you feel a bit down, take the time of year into account. Don't think, "The Holidays are the happiest time of the year, I should be happy." Think "It's tough getting through the dark days of Winter, I am going to use the holidays to cheer myself and other people up."

What is your favorite tip for surviving Winter?

Barack Obama, Sarah Palin and 150 Years of Progress

2008-11-05T15:32:00.000-08:00

This is an update of a post from 2005 that has even more resonance in light of the election yesterday. It might provide some optimism to those who are feeling pessimistic today.

150 years ago in America people were owned, bought, sold, and used like farm animals. The major export of the United States (Cotton) was dependent on slave labor. No major political party dared advocate abolishing slavery where it existed. The "Radical" Republicans only dared oppose the extension of slavery. Most large businesses and other non-religious institutions, North and South, were complicit with slavery by investing or dealing with slave owners and slave based commerce. Most individuals, North and South, practiced and accepted discrimination against African Americans in their own localities. Churches had split over slavery by the 1840's but not because Northerners called for abolition in the South or offered church membership to African Americans in the North. In most denominations, Northern church members didn't call for abolition or offer membership to African Americans. Churches split because Southern branches would accept no condemnation of slavery or questioning of its moral basis.

150 years ago The United States was one of the most free and equal societies in existence at that time.

100 years ago slavery had been gone for 40 years, but:
-open and constant discrimination against African Americans was accepted and practiced by most Americans. Separate but equal had been enshrined by a supreme court ruling. The vote was effectively denied to most African Americans. Theodore Roosevelt was widely criticized for dining with Booker T. Washington in the White House simply because he was black.
-Women were not allowed to vote and women's rights in general were widely dependent on their relationship to a man. Women's participation in the labor force was restricted by the unshared burden of child rearing, open discrimination, and strong social mores.
-Jews as well as many immigrants from "less desirable" parts of Europe were openly discriminated against in education, jobs, and even lodging.

100 years ago, The United States was one of the most free and equal societies in existence.

50 years ago women had the right to vote, but:
-Schools in the south were segregated, African Americans were still effectively denied the right to vote in many states, Economic, educational, and social opportunities were denied to African Americans.
-Social and Economic opportunities for women were still highly restricted.
-Discrimination against Jews and other ethnic groups was still open in some areas.

50 years ago, the United States was one of the most free and equal societies in the world.

This year:
-An African American, raised by a single mother, was elected to be the 44th president of the United States
-He defeated a mother of 5 children who was running for vice-president on the other ticket.
-Another mother of 5 children is the Speaker of the house
-An African American woman is the current Secretary of State. Her predecessor was an African American man. His predecessor was a woman.
-The face of America to the world as often as not has dark skin. I couldn't list all the African American athletes, entertainers, and public officials who are the ambassadors of the United States to the world.
-Women have greatly expanded economic opportunities and earn more than half of college degrees as well as significant proportions of advanced degrees in most fields including law and medicine. Wage differences between men and women have declined to the point where they can be explained by occupational choices women make and time lost in the labor force due to child rearing.
-Inequality between the sexes is still significant. Today many inequalities including incarceration rates, homicide rates, life expectancy, and college attendance bear unfavorably on men.
-Public schools still don't provide equal education, but choice in education (Vouchers, Charter Schools, etc.) is improving opportunities for the poor wherever it is tried. An African American secretary of education fought the education establishment to win significant accountability through public standards and testing for students in schools nationwide.
-Discrimination on ethnic or religious basis is rarely tolerated openly except for affirmative action which is an attempt to correct for past discrimination.

Of course, there is still work to do on discrimination and inequality

And yes, the United States is among the most free and equal countries in the world today.

Past progress in human rights and equality makes me optimistic for the next 50 years. Over each of the 50 year periods I talked about, living standards for all Americans, particularly the poorest Americans, have improved measurably and dramatically. Life expectancy, infant mortality, average height, literacy rate, just about anything you can measure has improved dramatically. Today, obesity is the most widespread dietary problem among poor and well off Americans.

Worldwide progress on freedom and equality has also been great over long sustained periods. Unfortunately, Europe's and the world's struggles with fascism and Communism created huge backward steps in freedom and equality for many in the 20th century. I am optimistic (perhaps foolishly) that the European Union can create a framework for progress in Europe that can withstand challenges. I am hopeful the two billion people of China and India can create progress for themselves.

America is often portrayed as divided but almost all Americans can applaud the progress of the last 150 years and work for more progress on freedom and equality in the United States and the world.

Comcast, Comcast, Comcast....

2008-10-12T09:29:00.000-07:00

Comcast's three premium services for $99.00 rate ended a few months back. I cut back to just slower internet and basic phone for a few months to get to about $70 dollars a month from the $140 or so they were trying to charge me.

Then Verizon came along with FIOS in my area. They offered the all important three services for $99.00 price point including high definition and a free multi-room DVR for a year. So, off I go to Verizon to give them a shot a for a year. After a year I'll cut back whatever I need to (TV is the least important, phone I can get cheaper from a 3rd party) to keep my bill down in the $70-$100 range.

These companies haven't made the switch particularly easy. Verizon didn't get that I was coming over from a competitor. I don't think they have the whole competition thing down yet. They had to recreate my order through a different department, the "win back" desk. Even the name "win back" implies all the customers were once theirs and will be again.

Once they contacted Comcast and we went through the neutral 3rd party to say "yes I really do want to change my number" Comcast decided they would take the full 10 business days they are allowed to take to move the number. This has to be a less than one minute process for them. I set my Comcast number to forward calls until the cut off date. I am still wondering if they will charge me until they stopped forwarding my calls today.

For Comcast's last delightful trick, they stopped forwarding my calls not on the Monday cutoff date, but on the Sunday before. Sunday when Verizon has no one available in the order department who needs to handle the task of turning on the number for their service. Note to Verizon, if Comcast is going to cut people off on Sunday, maybe you should have someone in the office who can actually turn them back on Sunday.

Now, Comcast may think they are making Verizon look bad making me want to leave when my contract is up. But what they are doing is making it hard to switch. And if I remember it is hard to switch, I'm going to stay where I am. Right now, I'm with Verizon.

So, the marketing lesson for service providers is: When people must leave you, try to leave as good a taste in their mouth about you _and_ about changing providers. Because you want them to change providers at least one more time.

Antoher marketing lesson, one year deals are risky. If it takes a good one year deal to get someone to go with you, chances are they value your service at about that one year price. If you try to jack them up very much, they are going to cut services to get to that one year price or leave you. At least they will if they are paying attention. I guess Comcast and Verizon can tell us if enough people aren't paying attention to make jacking the price up at the end of one year worthwhile business. At minimum, one year deals gives you a lot of "at risk" customers after one year. Companies should have a strategy for retaining those at risk customers.

Financial Bailout, Market Failure or Government Failure

2008-10-09T19:42:00.000-07:00

Failure to regulate or regulatory failure?

Like many regulated industries the financial industry bought the regulation they wanted. Huge contributions and lobbying by the financial industry, led by Fannie and Freddie, bought the lax oversight and government guarantees the financial industry wanted.

So, is that a market failure? It was the free market financial industry that bought access to taxpayer money. Free market incentives led Fannie, Freddie, and commercial banks to take on excessive risk to claim profits for private parties while backed by guarantees and insurance from taxpayers.

Or is it a government failure because government officials sold access to taxpayer guarantees for campaign contributions, contributions to lobbying firms, high paying jobs for Washington insiders, and sweetheart VIP mortgage deals.

It is the government that has the responsibility to look out for taxpayer money and the implied guarantees offered up on behalf of the government. The U.S. Government could not walk away from the implied guarantees to Fannie and Freddie so taxpayer money went out to take over bankrupt institutions that private parties profited handsomely from creating.

Government clearly has the power and responsibility to regulate commercial banks. They simply failed to do that. They allowed commercial banks to get over leveraged and to rely on assets the regulators didn't understand for their capital. Regulators should be aware that banks with insured deposits and especially banks that are "too big to fail" have incentives to take on excess risk and earn additional profits because failure is less likely than for uninsured institutions that aren't "too big to fail".

Investment banks are regulated differently, but if the failure of an investment bank can bring down regulated and insured commercial banks, then commercial bank regulators should have an eye on that risk and either regulate the investment banks or force commercial banks to mitigate the risk even if it means lower profits.

Yes, private greed went unchecked. But it was government policy that turned private greed into a national crisis and put taxpayers and our children on the hook to pay for risky bets that we would not have benefited from if they worked out well.

Selling our San Jose Home

2008-10-07T09:38:00.000-07:00

I've been keeping you in suspense about our San Jose home. I posted about our difficulties selling but didn't tell you what happened.

Our contract with our realtor ran out at the end of Summer 2006. We were contacted by many realtors who specialize in "expireds", expired listings. This actually seemed to be a fairly competent group of realtors. They advocated listing at a considerably lower price than we had been listing. One thought he could get some bidding going by listing it low enough to attract attention.

One of the realtors who contacted us wanted to buy the house himself. He set the price low enough that he got all the benefit from not paying a third party realtor the commission. This price seemed really low at the time and it was really hard to sell at that price.

In late September I was offered a job in Portland which is where we were wanting to move, so selling the house became a fairly urgent priority. I took the realtor's lowball offer. I considered it selling at about the price I wanted with a 10% commission to get a quick sale. The sale went very smoothly, he got his financing and cleared contingencies quickly. We had already done inspections and he accepted ours.

We were able to buy a house in the Portland area so I could start my new job on the day the house was available for us to move into. We were able to stay with my brother-in-law a few days while we prepared our house to move in.

We like it here in the Portland area and real estate in the Portland area has so far retained more value than California real estate. So, overall it worked out well.

Rent Seeking and Bailouts

2008-10-07T09:16:00.000-07:00

Rent seeking behavior is using resources to claim "free money" or economic rents. Rent seeking causes what are called "dead weight losses", wasted resources, because free money is available to claim.

Taxpayer money given out to private enterprises is one form of "free money". As financial companies recognize that free money is available they turn their attention away from saving themselves by raising capital, doing deals that make sense, and running their businesses towards grabbing a piece of the political pie, lobbying for a bigger piece, and paying off the political class in Washington.

We saw this behavior as Lehman Brothers potential acquirers dithered looking for a Bear Sterns style guarantee. We see it with Citigroup getting a taxpayer handout to acquire what turned out to be a very valuable Wachovia. To review, taxpayers took on billions of liability so Citigroup would buy Wachovia for around 2 Billion dollars. Wells Fargo offered 16 Billion without taxpayer liability! In short, taxpayers were getting screwed to the tune of billions for the benefit of the well connected, privately owned Citigroup. It turned out Wachovia shareholders were getting screwed too. Citigroup even has the gall to sue to protect their taxpayer funded purchase!

More evidence is in the Bear Sterns bailout. Taxpayers took on bad debts in a deal where stockholders appropriately for a a failing firm got very little. Stockholders pushed and got more. Taxpayers didn't get a better deal! The deal was more about getting taxpayer free money than ding the economically best deal.

Unfortunately, a lot of smart, hard working people working at financial companies are going to be spending their time, effort, and money maximizing their share of taxpayer's bailout money instead of doing anything that creates wealth.

That deadweight loss is one reason market reaction to the bailout has been so negative when it was proposed, when it failed, and when it passed.

Anti-bailout commentary from Harvard economist

2008-09-30T13:13:00.001-07:00

It sounds like this is Harvard's token Libertarian. He takes about the same point of view as my original bailout post, but elaborates more on the causes of the problem.

www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/29/miron.bailout/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Another View on the Bailout

2008-09-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

Interesting different perspective from my point of view that the bailout is a bad deal for taxpayers. This view says our investment banker in chief, Paulson is getting a great deal for the taxpayers. Since it looks like we're going to do this thing, I hope he is right. I would much prefer that the government is a neutral arbiter on the economy, not a trader going for a big profit. I think that is extremely dangerous and not worth the trillion dollars that it might net us this time. Taking the cost out of running up the bubble ensures the next bubble will be bigger and more costly when it deflates. And this one is pretty big and pretty costly.

Here is Andy Kessler's point of view in the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122230704116773989.html

I have to write about the 700B Bailout

2008-09-24T16:52:00.000-07:00

I don't think a taxpayer bailout of financial institutions makes sense. There are several alternatives that are better:

1. Amend the "Value at Market" rules for these derivative instruments that are so toxic. Create a "value to maturity" model and allow the financial institutions to use it for derivatives they intend to hold for more than a year. As defaults in the underlying instruments go up or down, they can use the model to revalue. Companies can use the derivatives for capital requirements on lending. The derivatives are no longer toxic for financial institutions and will regain market value that is much closer to their value if held to maturity. The advantages of the Bail Out with no taxpayer cost or or risk. Save 700 Billion with an accounting rule change.

2. Do #1 or not do #1 and let the chips fall where they may. All these assets (including the homes) need to find their true market value in the new situation. The sooner they do, the sooner recovery can begin. From my point of view, the Lehman version of a "bailout" is going very well. Sell the valuable parts of the insolvent company, bond holders get the cash proceeds and the securities that are hard to value, preferred stockholders get something if the bond holders end up getting paid. The market is freaking now because every company is treated differently by the treasury secretary which creates enormous uncertainty. Maybe Lehman could have been sold intact if everybody wasn't waiting for the high inquisitor treasury secretary to kick-in a few billion of taxpayer dollars like he did for Bear Stearns.

3. If we're going to inject a huge sum of money, why not inject where the root problem is, excess homes and inability to figure out where the bottom of the market is. Subsidize 1st time buyers and small investors who buy foreclosed homes or homes in depressed areas in a sustantial way. And lets not slow down the foreclosures that are needed to get the properities and toxic derivatives valued properly. How about buying up some homes for future public works projects (a lot of deferred road building needs to happen) and demolishing them right away. The people and the money will have to go somewhere.

4. Stabilize the dollar and be clear the Fed is not going to allow any further inflation. No one knows what the Feds going to do to the dollar. Uncertainty about the dollar is killing the market. Inflation has happened already but it is hard to tell how much. The money supply is hard to measure because of de-leveraging. The fed should say those things. "Over the last 2 years we think 9% inflation has happened that will be shaking out in Consumer Price Index and other measurements over the next 3 years. We are not allowing any more inflation than what is has already happened. So, expect measured 3% inflation a year over the next 3 years" Or say we're targeting 1% more than what has already happened. Give money supply targets and tell how you are taking deleveraging into account in your money supply calculations. The Greenspan approach of being the genius who fiddles with the controls in response to events isn't working any more. It was a bad approach to begin with but Greenspan was smart enough to make it work, for awhile. Now we're paying for monetary dial turning. Monetary policy needs to be on zero or near zero inflation autopilot whatever economic events are for at least the next few years.

Those are a start. We can't spend or bail out our way to prosperity. The companies and individuals who took risks they didn't understand need to pay the price and turn over their assets to more prudent operators through sales or bankruptcy.

Taxing the Rich

2007-08-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

I linked to the main page instead of to this story. This link will make it easy to find.

http://planetralph.blogspot.com/2004/11/taxing-rich.html

Ralph

The Great Faith of Atheists

2007-07-17T20:17:00.001-07:00

Before Darwin, no one could come up with credible way that complex processes could arise spontaneously out of simple processes. All people had observed were things breaking down into components and the increases in entropy or disorder that we all see in everyday life. Only creations of human intelligence and life itself would appear to break this pattern and create complex processes. The argument that if you observe a watch, you can safely say that a watchmaker is not only possible, but certainly existed was very difficult to answer. In fact it could not be answered based on the science of the time.

And yet, in spite of all the scientific evidence there were those with enough faith to believe that there was no god. Eventually, Darwin gave their faith more intellectual cover, but surely the amazing faith of the atheist is something that Christians can recognize and respect.

Of course, the belief that atheism is somehow "scientific" or supported by science is nonsensical. To try to take physical phenomena and disprove that it was created just doesn't make sense. Whatever you can prove about the nature of the universe has no bearing on whether the universe is created or emerged without creation. You can perhaps prove that God didn't leave obvious "fingerprints" on the universe. That may reveal something about the nature of God and his relationship with man but nothing about His existence. The atheists have their faith, the religious have another.

Holiday Letter 2006

2007-07-17T20:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Nothing much happened this year. Oh, there were a few changes.

We moved to Oregon. So, of course we had to sell our old house and buy a new one.

And Ralph got a new job. He works in product management at TransCore, in the transportation industry. And I started working at home in my same position at ADP. Naturally, the kids are in new schools. Kristin wanted to add a few thoughts of Holiday cheer to the letter sso I’ll let her type a few lines:

My life was ruined

MY LIFE SUCKS! IT WENT DOWN THE TUBES YO!!

We didn’t get a puppy

There are too many trees here and way too much fresh air!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…need…smog…..*gasp*

As you can tell from her tone, Kristin is in seventh grade. She goes to Waluga Junior High up here. Kristin played soccer this year before we left San Jose.

Grace is in fourth grade and Tim is in first grade at Bryant Elementary. Grace enjoys crafts and making things. She made Gingerbread houses at a party with some of her new friends here. She is still working very hard in school and reading constantly. Tim is making friends and keeping a positive and happy outlook. He is developing a love a books. Grace and Tim have especially enjoyed the network of trails that runs through our neighborhood. All the kids can easily walk to school now since their schools are right next door to each other and only a couple of blocks from our house.

But other than those few changes everything is pretty much the same.

We’re looking forward to having my parents and my brother Greg stay with us during the holidays. My side of the family will all be here for Christmas. My brothers Paul and Kevin and Kevin’s wife Elizabeth and their children Nora and Fiona live nearby in Beaverton. Ralph’s looking forward to visiting with his side of the family to celebrate Jeannette and Al’s 10^th Anniversary.

We are hoping you have a wonderful holiday and enjoy the blessings of the season.

Love,

Michele, Ralph, Kristin (ROCKS!!!), Grace, and Tim

Selling our home in today's market

2006-08-23T14:16:00.000-07:00

We're selling our 2,067 square foot home in the 95118 zip code of San Jose. We thought the Summer was prime home selling season--Wrong! Prime home selling season is late winter to mid-spring. People want to move about when their kids end school not around when they begin school. Tough lesson to learn in flat or falling market. It has been pretty dead as far as people looking at the house this Summer.

I set up a web site www.1340maryleeway.com so people can go direct to info on the house without looking at the MLS or general stuff on our realtor's site. Here is the house, call our realtor for a showing, today!

I am also using Google Adwords to advertise the house. I set up the account and campaign today. It was real easy, Google has simplified everything down so the newcomer to the advertising world (just about everybody) can easily set up an ad, place it, and track the success of the ad and the campaign. The ad hasn't been up long enough to track, but I'll be watching closely.

If you want a one story home, over 2,000 square feet, with 5 bedrooms (or 4 bedrooms and a big family room), two master suites, and 3 bathrooms, go to www.1340maryleeway.com

Quantmark Research

2006-08-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

I have been busy starting up a new company, Quantmark Research. Quantmark Research is a consulting operation that offers my traditional consulting strengths: product management, white papers, and product marketing and adds quantitative marketing analysis as well as internet business consulting. I am set up to work with large software clients but also smaller (perhaps much smaller) clients in other areas. I am hoping Quantmark Research can take on more the character of a family business with a close connection to the community.

Visit the website and the founders blog. I'll be publishing business and technology oriented topics on the founders blog and publishing more personal comments on this blog.

2005 Christmas letter

2005-12-22T10:05:00.000-08:00

Our 2005 Christmas letter. Links to previous letters are at the end. Pictures from the letter are in previous posts.

Merry Christmas!

We have been blessed in many ways this past year. I have been a full time house-husband most of this year. I appreciate the opportunities I have had to be involved in the kids life on a day-to-day basis. Helping the kids with homework, volunteering in Tim's kindergarten class, driving on field trip driving, score keeping for Kristin's basketball team etc. has really gotten me in touch with their lives. Still, I am ready to return to a career working outside the home and I am confident that will happen in 2006.

Michele has been working since March for ADP. She implements Payroll systems for new customers. People like to start new payroll systems at the start of a new year, so the Holiday Season is Michele's busiest season in this position. Busy season is actually barely controlled mayhem that keeps her working weekends as well as very early mornings. Other than that drawback, her job is going well. Michele is really well qualified for the position and is already considered a senior and valued member of her team.

Tim started Kindergarten this year and is one of the most popular kids in the class. As for his ability to pay attention and stay on task....
did I mentioned he is well liked? Tim played T-ball this summer and looked really cute in the uniform.

Grace has really blossomed academically this year. Her third grade teacher is thrilled with her work and her interest in reading has exploded. Grace had a flare up with her arthritis (JRA) that required treatment and physical therapy. We are thankful that it has all calmed down now and she doesn't have any remaining limitations because of it. Grace also had her tonsils out in November. Grace and I spent a lot of quality time with Doctors etc. this year. We are hopeful there will be fewer medical issues next year.

Kristin had another great year in soccer and just started basketball for the year. Sixth grade keeps her very busy since along with her regular homework she has major projects: a country project, a science project, social studies projects. Kristin loves computer games and TV as well as spending time with her friends, so it is a major challenge to focus on her long term assignments. We hope she learns from both her successes and failures. Kristin and Grace had a special two week “Camp Granny and Grandma” in the summer where they visited with both sets of Grandparents and enjoyed Southern California's activities. It is such a blessing that their Grandparents enjoy and are able to spend time with the kids.

Our best wishes for Happy Holidays, a Happy New Year and a Prosperous 2006.

Love,

Ralph, Michele, Tim, Grace, and Kristin

Links to previous letters:

2004 Holiday Letter

2003 Holiday Letter

2002 Holiday Letter

2001, 2000 Holiday letters are missing

1999, 1998, 1997 Holiday Letter links

Grace's Physical Therapy Picture

2005-12-22T09:53:00.000-08:00

The other kids had pictures of their sports (T-Ball for Tim, Soccer for Kristin); Grace wanted a picture of her sport which this year was physical therapy.

2005-12-22T09:51:00.000-08:00

Kristin's soccer picture, I put this on the Christmas letter.

2005-12-22T09:49:00.000-08:00

This one turned out cute from the Oakridge play area (after the Santa pictures)

Grace and Santa

2005-12-22T09:43:00.000-08:00

All the kids with Santa

2005-12-22T09:10:00.000-08:00

This was the Oakridge Mall Santa. Nice Santa, good beard but you couldn't take your own pictures. They wanted all the picture profits.

Tim and Santa

2005-12-22T09:00:00.000-08:00

Tim trying to convince Santa he'd been nice this year.

The Ceramics of Italy

2005-11-27T15:05:00.000-08:00

I have talked about our trip to attend the wedding of our good friends Dave and Sabrina in Italy. They have a ceramics business in Deruta, Umbria. Recently, they put their website online www.setteangeli.com. They are great people and I'm sure you would enjoy doing business with them or learning about Italian Ceramics from them.

Dave and Sabrina see one of their marketing differentiators as being very easy to deal with for Americans. They have a toll free U.S. number that rings through to their business in Deruta. They have a U.S. address and have worked hard on packaging and shipping at reasonable prices. As an American transplant to Italy, Dave is especially eager to share his discoveries in his adopted country. He writes a monthly newsletter that can be found at www.InLoveWithItaly.com.

If you have any interest in ceramics, visiting Deruta, or even just visiting Italy get in contact with Dave and Sabrina at the contact information on their site. I am sure they will have some valuable tips to share with you and will be friendly faces to see if you get to Deruta.

Diet Coke, Diet Coke with Splenda, Coke Zero

2005-07-31T13:32:00.000-07:00

There are suddenly a lot of different types of Diet Coke. I've noticed regular Diet Coke, Diet Coke with Splenda, Coke Zero (Coke 0), Diet Cherry Coke, Diet Coke with Lime, and Diet Coke with Lemon. What is a Diet Coke drinker to do?

To my mind, Coca Cola is risking customer confusion with so many brand extensions to Diet Coke (itself a brand extension). They must feel that grabbing more shelf space and appealing to people with fairly highly honed preferences in a diet cola out weighs the costs from confusion and diluting understanding of the taste part of Diet Coke's value proposition.

I ran a bit of a taste test with Diet Coke, Diet Coke with Splenda and Coke Zero. I'll try to describe the taste differences with references to Classic Coke.

Diet Coke--This beverage has had a consistent flavor for quite a few years. As near as I can tell, since the New Coke fiasco, Diet Coke has tasted the same. It was apparently designed to appeal to the New Coke or Pepsi Drinker who enjoys a bland, very sweet Cola. To my taste, not as good as Classic Coke but not much worse and no calories, so its usually what I drink.

Diet Coke with Splenda--This is something new I have seen on the store shelves. Splenda is an artificial sweetener made from sugar, so billed to taste like Sugar. Diet Coke with Splenda tastes a bit more like Classic Coke than plain Diet Coke. A little less bland than Diet Coke a little bit of "cola kick".

Coke Zero--This is also something new I have just started seeing. I haven't seen much positioning from Coke on Coke Zero, so I had no idea what to expect. Coke Zero is much closer to Classic Coke than plain Diet Coke and even closer than Diet Coke with Splenda. It is a little less bland and has that small cola kick that Classic Coke has. If you have had Coke Light overseas, Coke Zero tastes just like Coke Light. Coke Zero (along with Coke Light overseas) is my new favorite cola drink, although so far I can't buy it from a fountain, only in bottles and cans.

I'm not sure where Diet Coke with Splenda fits in here. If you like Diet Coke with Splenda better than regular Diet Coke, you will probably like Coke Zero even better.

The flavored diet cokes (Cherry Coke, with Lime, with Lemon) are fairly uninteresting offerings to me. Diet Cherry Coke has the bland, sweet flavor of regular diet coke with a bit of an artificial cherry soda flavor. Not enough of a unique flavor to make it interesting. Dr. Pepper is a better more interesting soft drink in this flavor range to my taste.

The lemon and lime offerings are also based on regular Diet Coke and add just a bit of a different flavor. I add lime if I'm stuck with only the choice of Diet Pepsi and I have access to limes. The lime taste doesn't add much for me if there is no "off" taste to cover up.

Even though the lack of calories and sugar can make Diet Soda seem cost free, I recommend keeping diet soda consumption down. Apparently, the diet cola's are just as bad or worse for your teeth than the sugared colas. There is a lot of acid in these drinks and the acid eats into teeth. I want to preserve my teeth a bit longer, so I only drink soda with meals when I can brush my teeth right afterward.

Linguica Casserole Recipe

2005-07-31T12:48:00.000-07:00

I haven't found this Recipe anywhere, so Michele must have made it up. Thought I better preserve it for posterity. We enjoy it and its not too hard to make. A batch makes enough to serve about 8 adults so we make it in 2 8 x 8 pans and freeze one.

Linguica is a spicy Portuguese sausage. In the San Francisco Bay Area it can be found at Costco and most grocery stores. In some parts of the country, it can be hard to find so you may need a specialty sausage store.

Ingredients
2 Linguica sausage sticks
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (Monterey Jack and Cheddar works fine)
10 Medium sized Potatoes
2 Red, Green, or Yellow Bell Peppers
1/2 Cup Milk
1/8 Pound Butter
1/2 Teaspoon salt

Peel potatoes, slice and boil about 45 minutes. When potatoes are soft, mash them with Milk, Butter, and salt.

While potatoes are boiling:
Slice linguica and cut slices into bits (about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch bits)
Chop peppers
Fry Linguica in a pan until cooked through

In 2 8x8 pans, put a layer of Mashed potatoes (if you are freezing one pan, you may line that pan with wax paper)
Sprinkle linguica and peppers evenly on Mashed potatoes
Cover with another layer of mashed potatoes
Cover the mashed potatoes with the shredded cheese
Bake both pans (or put one in the freezer and bake the other) at 400 Degrees for 25 minutes.

To cook Frozen casserole, bake at 400 Degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes.

Peerflix, Great Idea, Implementation doesn't work for me yet

2005-04-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

Peerflix is a DVD sharing service that aims to give a user experience similar to Netflix with much less overhead and lower cost to the user. Instead of using a central wherehouse to hold and match DVD's, peerflix always keeps the DVD's with the users of the service. The users of the service do the labor of mailing the DVD to the next user. Peerflix also allows users to put their own DVD's on the service and get credit for them.

So, as a member you have no monthly fee and you only pay $1.00 for each trade of DVD's. To get started you put some of your own DVD's on the service. You can keep DVD's you trade for or send them back to the system. There is no maximum DVD's you can donate to the service.

Sounded perfect to me. If I had a movie I just had to have immediately I could buy it and trade it into the service for credit that would let me buy more movies. I could buy one movie every other month or so for what I would spend on Netflix or Blockbuster rentals, make trades and see all the movies I could want.

I thought the problem would be availability of new movies on the system. The problem for me has been getting people to take my movies so I can trade for other movies! I have a couple of good "last year's" movies ready to trade. So far, I haven't been able to trade out, so I can't trade in!

I hoped to get started by signing up with my credit card to get a free movie. I expected a newer movie that would be easy to trade in and get started. The choices were much older than the movies I had ready to trade. I settled on a John Candy movie. I was able to trade it out, but it is only one credit. Most movies worth having cost two or three credits.

So, Peerflix is an interesting idea but for me it is a non-operational so far. Note that the whole thing is in beta. They may figure out a way to make it easier for people to get started before it goes into full operation. I'll be watching.

2005-04-14T19:32:00.000-07:00

Timmy, ready for Rivercats T-Ball action.

What kind of soap do you expect next to the bidet?

2005-02-16T17:10:00.000-08:00

Here is a story from our trip to Italy last year. I submitted it to the "Travelers Tales" section in a travel magazine but they declined to use it.

As is typical in Italy, our bed and breakfast in Rome had a bidet. Next to the bidet was soap in a push top dispenser container. The soap bottle said in big letters "Vaniglia". Not speaking any Italian, I thought it was interesting that they were so blunt about what the bidet soap was meant to clean. I told my wife that if she needed to clean her "vaniglia" they had just the right soap next to the bidet.

Later in the trip, I was very surprised to find at the gelati shop a container of white gelati labeled "Vaniglia". Like all the gelati we had in Italy, it was delicious. Those folks more worldly than I don't need to be told that "vaniglia" is Italian for Vanilla.

2005-02-16T17:09:00.000-08:00

Enjoying Vaniglia Gelati

Dr. Phil on Evan Johnson Placement Story

2005-01-29T20:49:00.000-08:00

I don't ussually watch Dr. Phil, but I wanted to see how he handled the Evan Johnson story that the NBC Today show botched so badly.

Dr. Phil did a better job making it clear that Evan Johnson was placed with guardians for 3 years rather than adopted. He spent a long time on the story and threw in another story about another attempt at adoption that didn't work out. Dr. Phil did say that these were atypical stories that should not discourage people from adopting.

These two stories certainly were atypical. The strange thing about the Evan Johnson story is that the child was placed with his guardians so long when he had a biological father who wanted him. The second story involved an attempt to adopt a Native American child. Two things make adopting Native American children problematic for non-Native Americans:

-U.S. law regarding Native Americans
-Native American tribes are generally opposed to non-Native Americans adopting Native American children because they feel that the children are denied their culture and the culture is denied a member who should be carrying on the tribes traditions.

This story also made it appear that the couple didn't get good legal advice at the start of their attempt to adopt.

Both these stories dealt with Children who were never adopted. Adoptions are permanent. Dr. Phil did a better job of making this clear than NBC. He could have done a better job of putting the stories in context of the large number of successful adoptions that happen every year.

Today show gets "adoption" story wrong

2005-01-22T17:15:00.000-08:00

I saw a story on the Today show that made me very angry because they got the story wrong in a way that sensationalizes the story and does a disservice to the truth and to adoption. The Today show and MSNBC portray the story as an adopted child being ripped from its adopted home where it lived 3 years to be returned to its birth mother. Of course, this is a nightmare every potential adopted family thinks about. It is a nightmare that almost never happens. It didn't happen in this case. The adoption never happened. It was not an adopted child, but a child the family tried to adopt where they retained guardianship. A sad story yes, but not the story that the Today show and MS-NBC reported. Here is the MS-NBC story which is the way the Today show also portrayed it:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6814927/

Here is a story that rings much more true from the Chicago Tribune: Story

I wrote to NBC to complain but only got a automated response. Here is the letter I wrote to NBC:

Subject: Disgusted by Sensationalized, inaccurate Today Show coverage of Evan Johnson Story

Dear Today Show Producers,

I was shocked to see on the Today show that an adopted 3 year old was taken from its adoptive home and reunited with his birth Mother. An adopted child being taken from its home is extremely rare. Before an adoption is finalized great care is taken to ensure that it is a final resolution of child's and the adoptive families status.

It is clear that Today Show and MS-NBC got the story wrong. The Chicago tribune story rings much more true: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0501080183jan08,1,7510119.story?coll=chi-newslocalchicago-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

The long standing guardianship described in the Tribune story is much different from an adoption. In fact, it appears that adoption was rejected when the child was less than 1 year old precisely because the permanent status of the child could not be guaranteed. While this story is indeed tragic and we can all question the wisdom of the decisions in this child's life, it is much different from an adoption falling apart. Adoptions are permanent. Guardianships, however long they last, may not be.

This kind sensational, inaccurate coverage is extremely damaging to families who might consider adoption and to children who can benefit from adoption. Family's have a right to know that finalized adoptions are almost never reversed. It is obviously extremely important that children and parents are confident their relationship is permanent. The importance of a feeling of permanence to children and families is the reason such great care is taken by legal authorities, social workers, and family's to make sure that adoptions are indeed final. The few times they have been reversed have been because of a long chain of extremely unlikely events.
I have been a foster parent and am an adoptive parent. It is very clear to foster parents, guardians, and adoptive parents that foster parent and guardianship relationships may be temporary, adoptions are permanent.

Portraying a long standing guardianship as an adoption to make the story more dramatic or exciting undermines the publics understanding of the reality of permanence in adoptive relationships. It may prevent prospective adoptive parents from considering adoption. It may leave children in foster care longer than they need to be.

I hope that Today and MS-NBC will work to correct the inaccurate impressions your story left. I hope you will have adoption advocates on your program to talk about how rarely finalized adoptions fall apart and how there are other defined relationships (foster care and guardianship) for situations where a permanent adoption is not possible. I hope you will let people know that adoption is a realistic, permanent and very loving way to build a family and raise child who can not be raised by his birth parents.

Ralph Galantine
San Jose, CA
408-723-9456

Snapfish and Firefox

2005-01-18T16:44:00.000-08:00

Don't even bother trying to use Snapfish with Firefox (or Mozilla, Netscape, Opera) if you are running on Windows. Just grit your teeth and load up Internet Explorer (IE) as annoying as it may be. Snapfish has a very nice uploading tool (an ActiveX control) that loads into IE and allows you to upload groups of photos from a directory easily. A lot of features, like ordering photobooks and the upload tool, just aren't available on Firefox.

I was trying to use Firefox and only go into IE when I had to for something like ordering a photobook. Unfortunately, you can't always tell what you are missing. If you are not in IE, you don't know you are missing the ActiveX uploading tool. If you are running outside of Windows I'm not sure I would recommend Snapfish at all. Shutterfly had more support for alternate browsers.

I made my feelings known to Snapfish with the advice that they support Firefox and other standards compliant browsers. This is a pretty big issue for me because IE is feels slow and ponderous next to Firefox (and firefox keeps getting better) but not yet big enough for me to drop Snapfish because I am happy with everything else.

Ralph

Costco Photo Paper Works with Epson CX6600

2005-01-17T22:48:00.000-08:00

I tried the Kirkland Signature Glossy Inkjet Photo Paper from Costco on the Epson CX6600. I was worried it wouldn't work because I had problems with the Kodak Photo Paper (cracking in the reds and yellows). I am happy to report, no problems with the Costco paper and the blues are deeper like the Kodak paper (the Epson paper has slightly less saturated colors for some reason).

I couldn't find the Epson cartridges at Costco but they are available from Costco online. Costco's great return policy makes me prefer to buy from them. I have had clogged brand new cartridges in the past, Costco exchanges with no question.

Ralph

Photo Memory Book Arrived

2005-01-09T16:23:00.000-08:00

The "Memory Book" we ordered from Snapfish arrived and we love it. It's a nice little hard covered book with all our best Italy pictures printed on high quality book-like pages.

I think the pre-made albums are the way to go. To me the main outputs of picture taking are albums and archives. Archives are simple enough to create on CD's or DVD's. Albums are a pain to assemble from prints, empty photo albums, labels. If you order 4x6 prints from a photo service, all you have when they arrive is another project. If you order a Memory Book, you are done.

Snapfish customer service was quick and helpful when we thought the book was lost in the mail. They offered to re-create it promptly but it arrived the next day so there was no need. E-mail Customer service was very courteous and seemed genuine in their desire to help in any way possible.

Even with the good experience with Snapfish, I took another look at Shutterfly. They have a softcover album that is only about 50 cents a page (compared to a dollar for the hardcover album). Plus, shutterfly has ample space for writing on every page and more flexible page options. Plus, Sutterfly works with my Firefox browser so I don't have to go into Internet Explorer just to work on a photobook. I downloaded Sutterfly's software and it made it easy to upload my 122 photos for my Michele "Baby Book" project. I was ready to go with a softcover album. But, I made a few discoveries.

Discovery one: the softcover album is smaller, only 5.5 x 7.5 inches. The Snapfish album is pages are 9 x 10 7/8, the shutterfly hardcover album is 8.75 x 11.25 inches. So, on to a hardcover Shutterfly Photobook. With their January sale it will still be about the same price or less than Snapfish (more for 1st 20 pages, less for each page after 20).

Discovery number two: Shutterfly's software re-cropped my pictures and cut off parts of them! Since I have 122 pictures already uploaded to Snapfish without anything cut off, the bad cropping is a deal killer for Shutterfly for this project.

I'll be back to try Shutterfly if I can use a small book somewhere or maybe to see how their hardcover book compares. I'll need to figure out how to solve the cropping problem.

Meanwhile, I downloaded Snapfish's software, photoshow. As a Comcast customer I get the deluxe version free. It looks great, similar to Picasa which I blogged on previously but with the ability to make slideshows and put them on Video CD's. The main thing I am looking for from the software is easier uploading of photos to Snapfish. The web based upload procedure goes by the single picture and is very cumbersome. If the Snapfish software works for me, Snapfish will have a pretty good overall solution.

Picasa--Pretty Cool

2005-01-07T20:14:00.000-08:00

Google is becoming the king of free software. Picasa is a very nice photo organizer and fixer. Two neat things:

1. It finds all the photos on your system when you install it. It also updates the folders that it expects to have photos. It organizes them more or less by folders. I can find all the stuff.

2. You can do simple fixes to photos like cropping, doing an auto color correction, or fixing red eye without changing the original file. It stores it in some auxilarly storage so you can _always_ revert back to the picture.

The ability to work on a file without changing it has been a godsend working on some family pictures that were scanned as whole album pages rather than individual pictures. I can crop and correct one photo from an album page, export it out as a new file then go back to the original page to start working on a new picture off the page.

I have Photoshop but I don't have any grasp of how to get much of the value out of it. Picasa does the simple, surface stuff easily and safely.

Picasa is now owned by Google and is a free download from:

http://www.picasa.com/

Thumbs up, especially for free.

150 Years of Progress on Freedom and Equality in America

2005-01-02T22:01:00.000-08:00

150 years ago in America people were owned, bought, sold, and used like farm animals. The major export of the United States (Cotton) was dependent on slave labor. No major political party dared advocate abolishing slavery where it existed. The "Radical" Republicans only dared oppose the extension of slavery. Most large businesses and other non-religious institutions, North and South, were complicit with slavery by investing or dealing with slave owners and slave based commerce. Most individuals North and South practiced and accepted discrimination against African Americans in their own localities. Churches had split over slavery by the 1840's not because Northerners dared call for abolition in the South (much less offer church membership to African Americans in the North), but because Southern branches would not accept any condemnation of slavery as morally problematic. The United States was one of the most free and equal societies in the world at that time.

100 years ago slavery had been gone for 40 years, but:
-open and constant discrimination against African Americans was accepted and practiced by most Americans. Separate but equal had been enshrined by a supreme court ruling. The vote was effectively denied to most African Americans. Theodore Roosevelt was widely censured for dining with Booker T. Washington in the White House.
-Women were not allowed to vote and women's rights in general were widely dependent on their relationship to a man. Women's participation in the labor force was restricted by unrestrained fertility, open discrimination, and strong social mores.
-Jews as well as many immigrants from "less desirable" parts of Europe were openly discriminated against in education, jobs, and even lodging.
And yet, The United States was one of the most free and equal societies in the world.

50 years ago women had the right to vote, but:
-Schools in the south were segregated, African Americans were still effectively denied the right to vote in many states, Economic, educational, and social opportunities were denied to African Americans.
-Social and Economic opportunities for women were still highly restricted.
-Discrimination against Jews and other ethnic groups was still open in some areas.
And yet, the United States was one of the most free and equal societies in the world.

This year:
-an African American woman born 50 years ago in Alabama will succeed another African American as Secretary of State. The qualifications of an African American Supreme court Justice to become the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court are being widely debated. An African American defeated another African American to become U.S. Senator from Illinois. Public schools still don't provide equal education, but choice in education (Vouchers, Charter Schools, etc.) is improving opportunities for the poor wherever it is tried. An African American secretary of education fought for and won significant accountability through testing from the educational establishment. The face of America to the world as often as not has dark skin (I couldn't list all the African American athletes, entertainers, and public officials who are the ambassadors of the United States to the world).
-Women have greatly expanded economic opportunities and earn more than half of college degrees as well as significant proportions of advanced degrees in most fields including law and medicine. Wage differentials have declined to the point where they can be explained by time lost in the labor force due to child rearing and occupational choices for flexibility. Inequality is still significant and many inequalities (e.g., incarceration rates, homicide rates, life expectancy) bear unfavorably on men.
-Discrimination on ethnic or religious basis is rarely tolerated openly except where there is a claim of past discrimination to correct (affirmative action). There is work to do on more subtle discrimination.
And yes, the United States is among the most free and equal countries in the world today.

Past progress in human rights and equality makes me optimistic for the next 50 years. I am particularly optimistic since over each of those 50 year periods living standards for all Americans, particularly the poorest Americans, have improved measurably and dramatically. Life expectancy at birth, infant mortality, average height, literacy rate, just about anything you can measure has improved. Today, obesity is the most widespread dietary problem among poor Americans.

Worldwide progress on freedom and equality has also been great over long sustained periods. Europe and the world's struggles with fascism and Communism created huge backward steps in freedom and equality in the 20th century. I am optimistic (perhaps foolishly) that the European Union can create a framework for progress in Europe that can withstand challenges.

America is often portrayed as divided but almost all Americans can applaud the progress of the last 150 years and work for more progress on freedom and equality in the United States and the world.

Gillette M3 Power Razor-Vibrating razor

2005-01-02T21:54:00.000-08:00

My brother told me about the Gilette Vebrating razor. He said he doesn't get any cuts with it. Checked it out in Consumer Reports--their review was pretty extensive. Consumer reports had people compare it to the old Gillette 3 blade system which is what I used. They said it was about even.

So, I gave it a go. I wouldn't say I get any smoother shave out of it (I still need to shave my roughest spot twice). But I would say it is less likely to cut and the vibrating motion does make the shave feel for more comfortable. The blades are interchangeable with the other Gillette 3 blade system.

So, marginal thumbs up. I'm going to keep using it, though I wouldn't say it is something you can't live without.

Electoral College--It's a good thing

2004-12-23T23:35:00.000-08:00

Dianne Feinstein is proposing an amendment to the Constitution to abolish the electoral college. Fortunately, the Electoral College will not be abolished. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't understand what a great thing it is. Dean's World explains nicely why the Electoral College system won't be abolished. It would take the consent 2/3 of the Senate and 3/4 of state legislatures to amend the consitution. So, a lot of smaller states would have to vote to disempower themselves to amend the constitution. Sorry Dianne, not going to happen.

Dean also explains some of the good points of the electoral college. Josh Marshall gives the standard critique of the electoral college and sets up a small state empowerement straw man to shoot down. I would like to point out a couple of advantages that Dean (much less Josh) doesn't elaborate that I think are important. One, the electoral college limits the effect of voting fraud. Two, the electoral college limits the impact of local passions and regional candidates.

Fraud can impact the most votes where one party is totally dominant and voting fraud in favor of that party is essentially condoned by the population of the locality. Imagine an election as close as the 2000 election. As Dean points out, the recounts and issues would cascade nationally as votes in every state could have affected the balance. As Dean does not point, Texas with a Republican Governer, legislature, court, and local election officials could easily have manufactured enough votes for Bush to offset the Gore total. But then of course Massachussetts with Democratic Governor, legislature, court, and local election officials could have manufactured offsetting votes. It would be competitive election fraud to the maximum and for any party or large polically uncompetitive state to unilaterally disarm would be suicidal in any remotely close election. The only solution would be central federal control over elections, which has its own opportunities for pernicious behavior. Under the electoral college system, the states where fraud matters in presidential elections are states that are evenly devided where checks on voter fraud are more likely to be found through party diversity (a Republican governer and secretary state and a democratic election commission and supreme court for example).

We can see the virtues of an electoral college in their absence in Ukrain or within American states. In Ukrain the Russian leaning eastern section of the country was able to manufacture votes for Russain supported candidate. If Ukrain had an electoral college like system, the manufactured high turnout and high ratio of votes for one candidate would have less effect on a national election.

Limiting the impact of local passions, is as important as balancing large and small states. Without the electoral college, a single state or regional candidate could take votes from one of the national parties in one state or region and change the national election result. Or perhaps a state party organization could be so weak, corrupt and discredited they make a very poor showing in a large state and disproportionally affect the national result. Over the years we have seen the regional impact States Rights parties, Green parties, temperance parties, etc. have had. The electoral college limits the impact of those parties to the states where they are strong and relevent, and does not amplify their impact through a single national popular vote decision.

Even though Feinstein is only grandstanding here, she is way off base. Calling for the abolition of the electoral college system is irresponsible.

Internet Photo Service

2004-12-23T16:20:00.000-08:00

After our problems with our printer and the experience of printing our homemade 8x10 holiday cards we decided it was time to sign up for a photo service.

I compared Sanpfish, Shutterfly, and Ofoto based on prices and offerings. The main thing I was looking for was their pre-made book pricing. Snapfish has a large format book at a about $1.00 a per page (double sided is a dollar per side). This seems like a better deal than the other services. I think these bound books are the way to go. No messing creating albums. I'll find out over the next few months. Snapfish also has the cheapest 4x6 prints. All the services seem to go for the gusto in pricing their 8x10's (over $3.00 versus under $1.00 for a 5x7).

I'll let you know what I learn about using Snapfish versus printing your own stuff on photopaper versus what I remember about getting prints at Costco from that film stuff people used to use.

New Printer/Scanner

2004-12-23T15:42:00.000-08:00

I love the multifunction printer, scanner, copier, fax thingies. I love being able to make copies, color copies, print and scan with only one thing taking up space in my small office. I loved our HP PSC 750. But alas, the HP PSC 75o completely gave up the ghost on scanning (it would only give errors when I tried) and the death of the scanner made the printer unreliable too.

So, it was off to research the latest Multifunctions from HP and Epson (we are down on Lexmark because we bought one and had two of them malfunction before we bought the PSC 750). CNET recommended the Epson Stylus CX6600 in this review . So, we went with the Epson even though we have been fans of the HP Deskjet line since the days were called a Deskjet without a number and the Deskjet 500 and we were pretty happy with the PSC 750 even though it only lasted about two years.

We loaded it up and brought it home from Fry's. I was a bit dissappointed for two reasons:
1. The Kodak glossy photo paper does not work with this printer. Red and yellow colors show cracking on the Kodak paper. It's fine on the Epson photo paper, but photos on the Epson paper I have tried don't look as saturated as the Kodak paper.
2. The state of the art doesn't seem to have advanced much in 2 years since the PSC 750. The Espson is about the same speed, does things with similar quality and has similar capabilities at about the same price. Aren't we supposed to be advancing in the computer field?

I am hoping for a little lower cost per page because of less expensive Epson ink and individual cartridges. I am also hoping for less fading, but in just two years I haven't had a chance to be bothered by fading, so that is a theoretical benefit only at this point.

The Epson does have slots for photo cards, so that is a nice advance on my old printer (especially since our computer has no memory card slots). But I was hoping for more speed, same or better quality at the same money as two years ago. According to reviews, the HP's at the $150 price point have really slow printing for photos (8 minutes for an 8x10!). So, to get more speed than I have now in an HP I would have to go to the 300 price point. Not appealing right now.

2004-12-19T19:15:00.000-08:00

Kristin with her outstanding player on her team for the 5th and 6th grade tournement.

2004 Holiday Letter

2004-12-14T22:35:00.000-08:00

We got our Christmas cards out! Yeah!

We printed the card out on photo quality paper at home. I don't recommend doing it that way unless you have a faster printer than we do. I loved the result of having the years picture's on an 8.5 x 11 sheet, but it took a long time to print it all (including running out of color ink in the middle of the job).

The .pdf of the card is here.

Here is the letter we sent out:

Dear Friends and Family,

We missed sending out cards last year. We were lost in our house remodel and just trying to get through normal life. The remodel is finished in the sense that we moved into and had the final inspection so we're done with the city (there is always more to do). Because we were able to move our office stuff into our new bedroom, we have room for each of the kids to have their own room and still have a large playroom/guest room. The playroom/guest room works really well because we got a bed that folds up onto the wall (a murphy bed). When its folded up there is lots of room for the kids to play and Timmy to make a mess without disturbing the rest of the house. My brother Paul is staying in the guest room right now until he knows where he will be working longer term.

Remodeling was much more disruptive to our lives than we could have ever imagined. We were our own general contractors with Ralph's Uncle Ralph and Ralph's cousins (Uncle Ralph's two sons Ryan and Mark) doing the vast majority of the work and designing the remodel. We did some things ourselves like installing Pergo floors, putting in closet organizers, some painting, some trim and fitting. I hope never to do such a major construction project while living in a home again.

Kristin, Grace, and Timmy are doing great. Kristin is turning into quite the scholar/athlete. She is keeping up her soccer playing while taking on basketball for Holy Family's 5^th grade team. She is keeping up her grades really well even with the pretty demanding homework in the fifth grade. We are just praying this kind of thing continues. Grace also played soccer this year enjoying playing goal keeper in particular. Ralph was the assistant coach for Grace's team this year, so we were pretty wrapped up during soccer season. Grace is also a Brownie girl scout and is doing well in second grade. Both girls were on a swim team in the summer.

Timmy is in pre-school now. Since he was born in May, he'll be younger (5 months younger than Grace) when he starts Kindergarten. I think he will be ready though.

Things at Ralph's company, Sun Microsystems, were pretty tough over the last couple of years. The usual “doing more with less”, downsizing, etc. In addition, Ralph differed with his manager about how to manage his team and areas of responsibility. He tried hard to work it out and wore himself down quite a bit, but ultimately he was laid off in July. He is looking for a position now in marketing with another technology company.

I have been doing a lot of volunteer work at the school including doing a math enrichment program for 4^th grade and helping out in the classroom last year. I really like getting to know the kids and parents at the school. I have been trying to find work that would allow me to spend enough time with the kids, but so far haven't found anything. I had an eBay store going online, but haven't found profitable items to sell.

We were fortunate to have two vacations this year. The first was in June with the kids to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. This Fall Ralph and I went to Italy. We were attending the wedding of Dave and Sabrina. Ralph met Dave in college and he has been our close friend since before we were married. They were married in Sicily and are now living in Deruta (in the Umbria region) working in the family ceramics business. We spent a few days in Rome and a few days on the Amalfi coast in addition to the time we spent in Umbria and Sicily. Of course, we ran ourselves ragged because we we wanted to see so much, but it was a wonderful trip.

Ralph has been doing a “blog” where he put up pictures from the trip, trip descriptions, pictures of the kids, and a few political reflections. He is also put links to letters of Christmas past. If you want to read more about our trip to Italy or see a few more pictures, his blog address is:

http://planetralph.blogspot.com

We are wishing you and yours a joyful holiday season and all the best in the new year.

Love,

Michele, Ralph, Kristin, Grace and Timothy

2002 Holiday Letter

2004-12-08T14:19:00.000-08:00

OK, I found the 2002 Holiday Letter. So, only the 2000 and 2001 are missing from the online archive (perhaps we didn't write them?). Here is 2002:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Christmas 2002

We are grateful for a relatively uneventful 2002. The children are growing and thriving, we are coping with three growing and thriving children, and I still has a job.

Timmy is every bit the 2 year old. He is working through toilet training making charming discoveries; for example, he has discovered he can not hold it indefinitely. He has quite a wide vocabulary, much of which can be understood with careful listening. I am convinced he understands everything we say.

Grace is nearly 6 and is in Kindergarten. She is getting to really enjoy Kindergarten. She loved her pre-Kindergarten and teacher, so it was an adjustment with her new teacher, larger class and more demanding environment at Holy Family. She is doing well though and is joining the Daisy Girl Scouts, taking gymnastics, and swimming in the summer.

Kristin is nearly 9 and is in the 3^rdgrade. She is still very much the soccer player and has her bedroom walls covered with signed posters from the CyberRays, Earthquakes, and Santa Clara Broncos soccer teams. She is singing in the choir at church and doing very well in school considering she talks so much and only occassionally listens to her teacher. She reads quite a bit, especially when she is not allowed to play her Gameboy or watch TV or when she is trying to stay up past her bedtime. Kristin received her first communion and was confirmed this year (our parish received special permission to perform confirmation before first communion.)

Michele is a “stay-at-home” mom, though she is rarely at home; she should perhaps be called a “kid-chasing, errand-running, activity-chauffeuring, school-volunteering” mom. Michele has successfully some of her sanity over the past year. Our vacation in Puerto Vallarto in the Spring and yelling at the refs during Sharks games might have helped with that.

I went from being a Product Line Manager to a Group Marketing Manager at Sun Microsystems. It seems to be one of those promotions where you keep doing the same thing and don't get a pay increase. I haven't been traveling as much though (just a couple of trips early in the year) so that is a plus.

We are hoping that events of year have been happy ones.

Love,

Michele, Ralph, Kristin, Grace, and Timothy

Our web site, and archive stuff`

2004-12-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

We have a website which served as sort of personal blog before there were blogs. The website address is:

galantines.home.comcast.net

The home page hasn't been updated in some time. Long live the ease of updating a blog!

Some relevent blog archive like things are:

Pictures
Family "blog"
Holiday Letter 1999
Holiday Letter 1998
Holiday Letter 1997

So, the 2000, 2001, and 2002 holiday letters aren't on line. What will the children do to fill in those childhood years when they write their autobiographies? I'll have to find them and put them up here.

Ralph

Christmas letter 2003

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

We never sent out Christmas cards in 2003. Michele did however write a Christmas letter. Here it is in case you wondered what happened to the Galantines in 2003.

Christmas 2003

Dear Family and Friends,

We are wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2004. We had a full 2003.

In January we lost my grandfather, George Clinton Murray (Grumpers to me and the kids). It was a blessing that the kids got to know their great grandfather and he enjoyed them. He nearly shared a birthday (-1 day) with our youngest and the 95 year separation in their ages really gave Grumpers a kick. We went to Wisconsin in May (after things thawed) for Grumpers funeral and the kids had an opportunity to see the Midwest side of their heritage and meet some relatives they hadn't had an opportunity to know. We were able to celebrate Grumpers life and family in a very meaningful way.

The last half of the year has been dominated by the remodeling of our house. We are converting the garage into a bedroom suite and laundry room and adding a new garage in front of the old one. Ralph's Uncle Ralph and Ralph's cousins Mark and Ryan have been doing most of the work for us. We hired a few contractors and have done a bit of the work ourselves. The project has kept us hopping and dreaming of the day it will be âfinishedâ. I put finished in quotes because the nice new work only points out how shabby the other parts of the house are, so there really is no finished. Before the end of the year we will move into our new bedroom and have a nice guest room/playroom with a queen wall bed in our old bedroom. That is an important milestone.

Before the heavy lifting started we took our vacation to the Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, and the Grand Canyon. We all enjoyed the parks, the sight seeing, and the bath water warm pool at the timeshare in Saint George, Utah. The driving was a little rougher than expected because our mini-van turned up with problems in the pre-trip check and we had to take our compact sedan (no DVD, much more crowded). The kids (and us) did way better than I expected. It was more reminiscent of the family drives when we were kids.

The kids are all doing very well. Timmy is 3 and is in his first year of pre-school which he loves. He is potty trained both night and day which is quite a relief. He is very good natured and gets along well with his sisters until they start playing too vigorously and he gets hurt. So far, nothing serious, knock on wood.

Grace will be 7 January 1^st . She is in first grade and is doing very well. She picked up on reading just in the last few months and is making great strides and really enjoying school. She played soccer in the fall and had fun with it and is still enjoying brownies and any art project she can get her hands on.

Kristin will be 10 in February and is already a true pre-teen. Fortunately, she is really starting to take an interest in doing well in school (instead of just doing what we make her do). Her soccer interest is still strong and she had a good fall season with Coach Andy's team (some of the girls she's played with since she was 5). Video screens (TV, Gameboy, internet) also have an extremely strong pull on her attention.

Ralph's job at Sun Microsystems has had its ups and downs this year. There have been a lot of changes in the software organization and some of Ralph's strongest supporters have left the company. He didn't have to travel much this year but did take a trip to Asia just before Thanksgiving. He went to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Shanghai and he found it very interesting since he had previously only been to Japan in Asia. As he said, it got him out of the office for a week.

I have been volunteering a lot at the school working with groups of the kids in math and running an enrichment program for some of the fourth graders who would benefit from some more challenge. Volunteering with the kids helps keep my hand in teaching and gives me hours I need to renew my credential. Its rewarding working with the kids and seeing how they take things in. I cut back to just the enrichment program to focus more on the remodel the last couple of months but will probably volunteer some more time in the New Year.

Hope you are well and can make the most of 2004.

Love,

Michele, Ralph, Kristin, Grace, and Timothy

Taxing the rich

2004-11-30T20:04:00.000-08:00

I was wondering why people talk about taxing the rich but we never end up taxing the very rich heavily at all. Taxing the rich ends up, at best, meaning taxing the upper middle class. It finally occurred to me, it is vitually impossible to finance any government activity by taxing the very rich. And this is very easy to demonstrate.

Take the very rich to be the Bill Gates, George Soros, Teresa Heinz Kerry, Tiger Woods class of rich people.

-Recognize that the government needs real resources to build aircraft carriers, provide food or housing for the poor, improve homeland security or whatever it wants to do.

-To provide those real resources, taxes must reduce someone's consumption of real resources. Someone's behavior has to change or there are no real resources taken in taxes for the government to use.

-The very rich don't need to change their behavior in response to any reasonable taxes. Bill Gates does not say, "Gee, that tax bill was high this year, I won't do fiber optic to every room in the house, I'll just use wireless in the west wing". It doesn't happen. Teresa Kerry does not say, "Wow, that was quite a tax bite, I'll buy off the rack this year instead having designers come in." Doesn't happen. Even if they shift their assets in response to taxes, they won't change their own consumption. They have sufficient resources they can afford to ignore any reasonable taxes.

-The very rich can't be taxed at an unreasonably high level because they have the political resources to defend themselves. If you try to take 7 or 8 billion from Bill Gates he's going to notice, spend a couple million or even a couple of hundred million, and he is going to win. Though even 7 or 8 billion wouldn't affect his actual consumption.

-So, taxing the very rich only changes consumption or (actually impacts) those less rich folks who depend on how the very rich allocate their assets to avoid or to pay taxes. These folks may be anywhere in the income distribution.

So, forget trying to finance the government on the backs of the very rich.

Now consider:
-who has sufficient resources to finance significant government activities
-who's consumption is sensitive enough to income that it can be reduced by taxes
-who doesn't have unlimited ability to buy political influence to fight unreasonable taxes
That's right, the upper middle class and the middle class.

Examples:
-People who own prosperous autoshops, boutiques, hair salons
-Executives at corporations (excluding the highest paid ones who are super rich)
-Real estate investors and successful agents
-Highly paid skilled workers
etc.

These upper middle class people are the people who should be pictured when someone talks about taxing the rich, not the super rich. The famous star entrepreneurs, athletes, heiresses are not affected in the least by higher taxes.

People in the super rich class who advocate higher tax policies are routinely given credit for opposing "their own" interests. This is false credit. When George Soros advocates higher taxes, he is opposing the interests of people much poorer than himself. His consumption will not be reduced at all by any tax increase advocated by him or the organizations he funds.

Think of the right rich people when you are thinking of taxing the "rich".

2004-11-13T16:04:00.000-08:00

Trading Card for Kristin the Goal Scorer

2004-11-13T16:03:00.000-08:00

Trading Card for Grace the Keeper

2004-11-12T17:22:00.000-08:00

Sabrina and Dave at the Wedding Dinner

2004-11-12T17:21:00.000-08:00

View South from upper town of Taormina

2004-11-12T17:19:00.000-08:00

Sabrina and Dede at Chiara Del Luna

2004-11-12T17:16:00.000-08:00

Mount Etna from the Teatro Greco in Taormina

Sicily

2004-11-12T15:07:00.000-08:00

The Eurostar train from Naples to Sicily was pretty fast and comfortable. It took about 5 hours to get us down to the Ferry terminal on the mainland for a 40 minute ferry ride to Sicily. The Eurostar as more expensive and no faster than the IC train, but the timing was more convenient. I think on the IC train, the train itself goes onto the ferry and you just stay in the train. That would have been interesting, but the Eurostar worked fine. The ferry took us to the a ferry terminal in Messina that adjoined the main station where it was easy to catch our train to Taormina. We passed the train station for Ali Terme' where my friends' pre-wedding dinner would be the next day and where his wedding would be the final day.

Our hotel, Hotel Villa Caterina, was a short cab ride from the train station. The Hotel says 2 Kilometers but the cab ride seemed a little longer. In any case, it is too far to walk comfortably and about a 10 Euro cab ride from the train station. The room was roomy enough and comfortable. We never got the air conditioning working, but since we were mostly there in the evenings we were able to keep the room cool enough by opening the windows. We didn't have any mosquito problems there.

On the one hand, the hotel is on the Bay of Mazzaro, so it is convenient to the beach. On the other hand, it is less convenient to the rest of the town. The rest of the town is up on the cliffside overlooking the bay. The day is reached most conveniently by an arial tramway about 100 meters from the hotel. We used that tram a lot and found it convenient for reaching the main part of the town. Taormina is a wonderful town with beautiful views overlooking the bay. The main town area is extremely picturesque with churches and squares crowded with people shopping and strolling. We strolled around the town that night and had our dinner in the main part of town.

Our main task was to figure out how to get to the pre-wedding lunch and the church in Ali Terme. The desk clerk spoke excellent english and wanted to be helpful but she didn't have a lot resources like train schedules, maps, etc. It was a real contrast to the Hotel Desiree where they made the effort to have everything at their fingertips. There was no direct dial out of the hotel and the evening operator didn't speak English, so it was very hard to make a call out of the hotel. My English speaking friend also had trouble calling into our room from outside. On the plus side, the Hotel promptly delivered an e-mail to our room that was sent to the hotel's e-mail address. During daytime hours, I went to the front desk to get help with outgoing calls and the desk clerk was helpful in getting us connected. I used my cell phone in the evening. Fortunately, my friend was able to get through to us on our cell phone and he was good enough to set us up with rides to the lunch and the wedding with people staying in Taormina, so the problem of getting there by train was obviated. Since we were following someone who knew the way to lunch, the direction were taken care of as well.

We met the dinner party in the main part of Ali Terme'. Ali Terme' is a near suburb of Messina. It struck me has having a "Beach Town" kind of ambiance. I was surprised how large and spread out urban Messinal was. Suburbs stretch out unbroken along the coast quite a ways toward Taormina. Lunch was at Chiara al Luna, a Restaurant above Ali Terme'. The seafood was a highlight in a wonderful multicourse feast. The view out the picture windows of Chiara al Luna was also a highlight! We only needed to have a little Gelati later in the evening to cover our "dinner" we were so full from lunch.

We didn't plan to follow anyone to the church, so we tried for directions at the hotel desk again. Again, the clerk wanted to be helpful but she couldn't locate the specific address and suggested a way that turned out to be the slower way (though perhaps a bit easier than the toll rode for unfamiliar drivers). Our ride accused me of trying to save on tolls when we followed her directions and it turned out much slower than the way we had taken the day before.

The wedding was in a beautiful little chapel in a school that is a bit hard to find. We had to ask a couple of people on the street to finally zoom into it. The ceremony and mass was lovely. The choir had beautiful voices. Truly a joyful event for everyone present.

The wedding dinner was back in Taormina at the Hotel Diodoro. This is an old hotel with a spectactular view from the terrace where we gathered between the wedding and the dinner. We were amazed to see red lines of lava on Mount Etna. I found this view of red glowing lava to be spectacular. Dinner was another amazing meal. Apparently in Italy they dispense with all the set pieces we insist on at American weddings (dancing in various pairings, bouquet tossing, etc.) and focus on the important activity eating! This was another spectacular meal. We were eating and drinking late into the night. We actually had to leave before the eating was over in order to leave before Michele fell asleep in her plate and before the tram we rely on closed at 1 AM. It was a wonderful wedding and celebration and truly a joy for us to be there to celebrate the day.

With all the wedding activities we only had time to vaguely plan our way to Palermo. We had spent enough time to figure out that flying out of Palermo was a big mistake. Sicily has two airports. Palermo and Catania. Catania is less than an hour away from Taormina, Palermo is about 5 hours! If your going to Taormina or Messina, use Catania. But we had to get to Palermo. Without a train schedule in site, we left for the train station at a time we thought was plenty early. Wrong. We missed the train we would have needed to catch our flight by about 10 minutes!!!! This is when we really appreciated the way that Hotel Desiree in Sorrento had all the train schedules on hand. We had to take a cab to Messina (an expensive proposition). We made the Messina to Palermo leg of our train trip.

This trip just made us want to spend more time in Sicily and actually see Palermo and environs. From the train, Cefalu with its Duomo perched between a cliff and the sea looked particularly inviting. Our task was to get to the airport in time to make our plane. We had to change trains in Palermo but we managed to figure out which train headed to the airport. We made our plane for Rome. Once back in Rome we were just staying overnight near the airport and then heading for home.

When we arrived home, we found things much better than we left them. The house was squeaky clean, flowers were planted along the walkway, the children were happy. We were amazed. Things at home went downhill to their normal equilibrium once my Mom left.

What is 1928?

2004-11-11T11:13:00.000-08:00

The last time the Republicans won a presidential election without a George Bush and without Richard Nixon on the ticket.

Republicans won in '52 Nixon VP, '56 Nixon VP, '68 Nixon, '72 Nixon, '80 George Bush VP, '84 George Bush VP, '88 George Bush 41, 2000 W, 2004 W

Odd little tidbit.

2004-11-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

View from Villa Rufolo in Ravello

2004-11-11T11:02:00.000-08:00

Preserved Wall Paintings at Herculaneum

2004-11-11T11:01:00.000-08:00

View of Sorrento near Hotel Desiree

Sorrento, Pompeii, Amalfi

2004-11-11T09:47:00.000-08:00

The trip to Rome to Naples was fast and comfortable on a Eurostar train. We left one of our big bags at the Rome airport and we were glad of it. We had one big bag and one small backpack and that was enough to be lugging through the train stations. At the train station in Naples we were greeted by lots of people offering to take us to Sorrento or Pompeii or to carry our luggage. We were Savvy enough to wave them off knowing it would end up costing a lot more than the train and it would be hard to get our bags back without surrendering money. We found the Circumvesuviana train and bought our tickets to Sorrento. This is a local transit style train that goes around Vesuvius to Sorrento. Because the train has a lot of stops it took about 90 minutes to get to Sorrento.

While the train itself is rundown and not very attractive, the scenery is quite spectactular for some parts of the trip. You have Mount Vesuvius on one side and the Bay of Naples on the other side. On other parts of the trip you mainly see rundown suburbs of Naples. We noted the stops for Pompeii and Herculaneum because those were on our plan for our stay in Sorrento.

At Sorrento we needed to get tickets for the bus to our hotel, Hotel Desiree. The ticket sellers were claiming to be out of bus tickets (I think the cab drivers might have been outbidding the bus company). I managed to persuade one of the Tobacco shops to sell us bus tickets. We had a long wait for the bus, but it finally left and dropped us off close to Hotel Desiree.

The Hotel was in a beautiful location above the city and above the bay of naples. The view around the hotel was spectacular either at night with the lights from the cities or by day with the sparkling blue water. The room was comfortable and the hotel staff was very helpful. Like all our hotels this was much more "Budget Travel" than "Conde Nast" but this was our favorite hotel of the trip. We walked down to town for dinner and back to the hotel that evening. It was a fairly long but reasonable walk.

We decided to do Herculaneum and Pompeii the next morning. We started to walk out of the hotel and the clerk literally ran after us to make sure we got some advice on our travels. He gave us maps of Pompeii and strongly recommended we only plan on seeing either Herculaneum or Pompeii in one day because Pompeii alone we should allow 5 hours. Probably good advice, but we wanted see both, so we went ahead with our plan armed with his maps and advice about Pompeii.

Both sites are spectactular. Herculaneum is wonderfully compact and has smaller crowds and some amazingly well preserved buildings. Mosaics on the floor of the baths and some houses, even original woodwork on some of the shops. Herculaneum really gives you a compact and digestable Roman city without a lot of crowds and hassles.

Pompeii is huge! Much bigger than I expected. It was clearly a pretty big Roman town and you really get the feeling of walking through a city because you are walking on Roman roads through blocks and blocks of ruined buildings. A lot of interesting buildings, too many to see in the time we allotted but the guidebook they gave us at the ruins helped pick out the high points. Actually, they didn't give us the guidebook, it was sitting out and I found it after poking around the ticket office area in both Herculaneum and Pompeii. Less enterprising tourists were wandering around without guidebook or map. The guidebook suggests two different two hour tours depdening on which entrance you come in. I misread the guidebook and thought this was one two hour tour. By the time I was halfway to the Amphitheatre, I realized this could not be a two hour tour because it took me 30 minutes just to walk to the amphitheater from another site. Michele wisely decided to rest while I ran off to see Roman amphitheatre number 4 or 5 for this trip (there would be one more in Sicily, but it was a greek amphitheatre).
We returned to our Sorrento to have dinner, so it wasn't quite archeological site 1 for lunch, archeological site 2 for dinner).

We had a good Italian meal at the adjoining restaurant to the hotel, but the service was horribly slow. I often would order an antipasto to share, a primi plata to share, and two plata secondi's. This seemed to either annoy waiters who would serve us slowly or signaled to waiters we wanted very leisurly service. In this case, the service was beyond slow to really being offensive. Even after asking for the check, he took a very long time to bring it. Michele actually made a paramid out of the glasswear we were so annoyed waiting. Another American couple who was enjoying very slow service across the room enjoyed our antics. We got our check before they did, perhaps because we were more obnoxious.

The next day we were off to Amalfi. The bus ride to Amalfi was spectacular but a bit nerve racking. The highway is about 1.5 lanes, so passing cars going the opposite direction is an exercise in patience and driving skill. Especially for a bus driver. I was glad we weren't driving even our little Smart car, let alone a full sized vehicle. We drove through Positano, but we had to choose between going to Amalfi and Ravello or staying and walking around Positano (we got a late start that day). We chose to see Ravello which had spectactular views. We could get a little sense of Positano on our drive through, but that is a go back to really get much feel for it.

Amalfi coast and Sorrento are high on our go back list and the area that we wished we could have stayed longer. This is a spectacularly beautiful area and we didn't even scratch the surface. We didn't go to Capri, or any of the islands, we only drove through Positano, we spent no time in Naples. So, that is all left for another trip. Maybe the one where we go to Pisa and the Cinque Terra or the one where we go to Venice.

We had planned to go to Salerno to catch a ferry for Sicily. But in talking with the hotel desk clerk he pointed out that a bus to Salerno would take three hours. We would have to leave early to catch a ferry that wouldn't get us to Sicily until late. He suggested taking the Circumvesuviano back to Naples and getting the train to Sicily (via a short ferry ride from Reggio di Calabria. He thought this would be faster than going to Salerno and catching the same train later in the journey. He had all the schedules there which made a huge difference in figuring out what to do. We went back to Naples. We passed through Salerno about three hours after we left Sorrento, so the apparent back tracking didn't cost us anything.

Next installment will be on our stay in Sicily.

World phone

2004-11-11T09:39:00.000-08:00

If you are considering renting a phone for international use try www.mobal.com.

You can buy a phone that works all over the world with no monthly fees from them for $49.00 including delivery. By minute rates are fairly high, but if you only plan to use it only occassionally it is a good deal. The only thing free is incoming SMS messages.

We used this in Italy. They delivered it promptly and it worked in all the areas in Italy we were and in Switzerland. It was great to have the phone as a fall back where people could reach us even with the high per minute rates.

Ralph

2004-11-07T13:54:00.000-08:00

Duomo at Spoleto. The inside isn't as impressive as the square and the outside.

2004-11-07T13:49:00.000-08:00

Michele at Orvieto.

2004-11-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

Ralph at Assissi

Umbria: Hill Town for Lunch, Hill Town for Dinner

2004-11-07T13:40:00.000-08:00

This is day 4 through 7 of our trip to Italy.

After trying to see as much of Rome as possible in two days, you would think we would rest in the quieter environs of Umbria. Wrong. We had a car, we got bored staying in one place real quick. We were staying in Deruta, which is a wonderful place to buy pottery but not a hotbead of tourism or night life. So we embarked on our rampage through Umbria. We found we could drive to one hill town in the morning, eat lunch there and while everything is shut down for Siesta, we headed for another hill town where we would sightsee until the restaurants opened for dinner (the magic 7:00 hour that we found ourselves waiting for wherever we were).

So, we saw Todi (Dinner, the day we drove in from Rome), Assissi (Lunch), Perugia (Dinner), Orvieto (Lunch), Spoleto (Dinner) and in between we managed to see Deruta which is a cute little hill town although the part we stayed in was the flat part at the base of the hill. By seeing so many Unbrian hill towns we came to be something of hill town connoisseurs. We could appreciate the medieval layout and atmosphere of Todi and compare it to the combination of Roman, Medieval, and baroque sites in Spoleto.

Assissi has the wonderful churches associated with Saint Francis and the Franciscans. Assissi has a beautiful medieval layout and views to the agricultural plains layed out below the hill town. It competes with Todi to be the architypical Umbrian hill town. Assissi is a great place to buy religious oriented souvenirs as well.

Perugia seems a little more alive and less of a preserved tourist attraction than the other hill towns. Perhaps because of the University and the fact that it serves as more of a regional hub than the other towns. A highlight in Perugia was the Collegio del Cambio (Exchange Guild) decorated with wonderful frescoes by Perugino. The other unique thing about Perugia is that it has a laundromat! Laundromats seem to be very hard to come by in Italy. We asked all over Deruta, Orvieto, and Spoleto and couldn't get anyone to point us to a laundromat. Part of it may have been our inability to convey what we were looking for. However, it seems that while there are plenty of dry cleaners around, laundromats are rare. We found from our Lonely Planet guide book that Perugia had a laundromat so we were rushed back there to get to the laundromat before it closed. Running through a medieval town at night stopping at an internet cafe to ask where a laundromat is somehow was a strange highlight of our trip.

Orvieto has a unique Duomo with black and white striped exterior and an impressive interior. Orvieto is also famous for its white wine. The sample we enjoyed was a somewhat sweet but not too fruity white wine with a very clean after-taste. A very enjoyable wine.

In Spoleto we enjoyed the Roman museum and amphitheater as well as the impressive bridge that was built from a Roman aquaduct. We also unexpectedly met a friend from the U.S. who was also traveling on vacation.

In Deruta, we stayed at the Assi Di Coppa which is an affordable, comfortable and friendly family run hotel. Most people staying there are Italians, so the staff isn't that strong on English but we were able to convey our needs. We visited with our friend Dave who joined a wonderful family run ceramics store at Via Tiberina Sud 297, Sebastiono Camillen Maioliche d'Arte. Deruta is famous for ceramics and Dave's wife's family has offered a great selection of Deruta's ceramics for a number of years.

After our romp through the Umbrian towns and our visit with Dave, we headed back for the Rome airport to drop off our car and catch a train to Naples (via central Rome). From Naples we would take the Circa Vesuviana local train to Sorrento our next stop.

2004-11-04T20:59:00.000-08:00

Hometown hero.

2004-11-04T20:57:00.000-08:00

Anyone need rescuing?

2004-11-04T20:56:00.000-08:00

Admiral Timothy

2004-11-04T20:55:00.000-08:00

You're fired!

2004-10-28T20:14:00.000-07:00

Ralph and the Smart Car. Filling the smart car in Italy was roughly as expensive as filling our minivan in the U.S. for roughly the same miles. I see why people drive smaller in Europe.

2004-10-28T20:10:00.000-07:00

Ralph at the Colliseum in Rome

2004-10-28T20:06:00.000-07:00

Michele in front of Saint Peter's in Rome

Roma and Fiumicino

2004-10-28T19:40:00.000-07:00

We stayed in Rome three nights at the Bed and Breakfast, I Tetti Di Roma. My review on TripAdvisor.com is here. We couldn't get a good rate on a regular hotel, the convent hotels didn't seem to be returning faxes so we picked this bed and breakfast which is one of two rooms carved out of an 8th floor apartement. It qualifies as a find because the price was very low for Rome from what we could find and the room was comfortable. The location was convenient to the metro and felt safe and residential with a couple of places to eat, a grocery store, and most important Gelati.

We spent our limited time in Rome at the Vatican Museums, the Colosseum, Roman Forum, the Parthenon. Of course we went by the Spanish steps and the Trevi fountain. Since we used those metro stops, we saw both multiple times. I wasn't dissappointed in the restored Sistine chapel. I hadn't seen it since the colors were brought out.

We went back to the airport at the end of our stay in Rome to pick up the car we rented from Sixti car rental. We got a Smart car on an internet rate that was better than any other rate we could find in Italy. We loved that Smart car! Small is a virtue on the narrow Italian roads, especially the roads winding through Umbrian hill towns! Sixti's 5 Euro a day rate is a bit deceptive because it is limited mileage and things you normally need like an extra driver and even cleaning the car are extra. But check them out here because its still a good deal even though it really costs more than they are touting.

At the end of our trip, we stayed in Fiumicino one night. We stayed at the Euro House Fiumicino (my review here) . Staying in the town of Fiumicino is a convenient alternative to going all the way into Rome when you are just making a connection to somewhere else. We were coming in from Sicily and leaving for the states the next day, so it didn't make sense to go into the city. There is an airport Hilton conveniently connected to the airport, but it was much more expensive than options in Fiumicino.

Holiday Gift Exchange--For family members

2004-10-28T19:28:00.000-07:00

This post if for family members to document our gift exchange. We do a rotation of buying for different families so we have a chance to buy for all our siblings on a three year rotation but we don't have to buy gifts for 4 different families every year.

The gift exchange for 2004 is:

Family buys for family
--------- ----------------
Richard Carolyn
Carolyn Ray
Ray Ralph
Ralph Richard

Family gift maximum is $100.00

Planning ahead: 2005 will be:

Family buys for family
--------- ----------------
Richard Ralph
Carolyn Richard
Ray Carolyn
Ralph Ray

2006 will be:

Family buys for family
--------- ----------------
Richard Ray
Carolyn Ralph
Ray Richard
Ralph Carolyn

For 2007 it will be the same as 2004 above and we will repeat in
same order.

Layover in Zurich, dayroom at the airport

2004-10-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

Because we used frequent flier miles to get to Rome, we ended up with a 9 hours layover during the day in Zurich. The price of saving money!

It is easy to get to the city of Zurich from the airport. A train gets you to the city center in about 40 minutes. You can devise a walking tour that includes the old town, a couple of churches, bridges over the river, and the Stadt museum that would take a few hours and see the city and have lunch.

This proved a bit too much for us. We took the train downtown and did walk around a bit but we were too exhausted to enjoy it. We had been flying for over 14 hours (including changing planes in Dallas) and we didn't sleep on the way out. So we headed back to the airport and looked for a place to sleep. We came across the "dayrooms".

A dayroom is like a little hostel room right in the airport. For about $60.00 we got a room with twin beds for about 4 hours of sleep. A great 4 hours of sleep! The dayrooms seem to be popular with parents with babys to get a rest, but the noise didn't penetrate too much into our room and we were tired enought it didn't matter.

After our sleep we were off to Rome to arrive by the evening.

New Name---Planet Ralph

2004-10-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

After I started this blog, I found that Stochastic Thoughts was taken by another blog already. So, the new name is Planet Ralph. The reason I picked this new name? It wasn't taken (at least from my Google search). Also, this blog is all about my world. It's my world and welcome to it.

Italy (Rome, Amalfi Coast, Sicily) hotels Under $100.00

2004-10-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

We recently went to Italy for two weeks. I did quite a bit of planning, so I'll share as much as I can here in case it can save anybody else much effort. This posting shows the hotel research we did looking for hotels around $100 per night. Most of the hotels are in Rome, a few are on the Amalfi coast. I'll follow up with reviews of the places we actually stayed.

Useful web sites--

Useful books:

Lonely Planet Italy 2004
Frommers Italy 2004
Fodors Italy 2004 (didn't find as much insight, good places as Frommers or Lonely Planet)

Rome

I tetti Di Roma—78 Euro per night. Bed and breakfast in someone's apartment. Only two rooms with one shared bath, got nice review on slowtalk.com. Www.itettidiroma.com. Good location, great views from the rooms (8^th floor). We stayed here.

Hotel Panda—98 Euros per night. Good recommendation of Frommers. Good location. www.pensionepanda.com. Book by telephone or fax. Good but not effusive reviews on tripadvisor.com.

SAN GIUSEPPE DELLA MONTAGNA –76 Euro per night. Good recommendation on Fodors.com, a couple of positive reviews on Fodor's.com. Nuns are friendly but do not speak English and only a little Spanish. Good location just outside the vatican. Phone: 06/39723807
Fax: 06/39721048

Fraterna Domus—Another convent hotel. Good review from Fodors.com, a couple of positive comments. 1 of the sisters speaks English according to one review. Good location. Phone: 06/68802727 Fax: 06/6832691. Under 76 Euro per night.

Hotel Carmel—100 Euro, good review on Fodors.com, 1 good review on tripadvisor.com. 10 rooms, most with bathrooms. Only Kosher Hotel in Rome. Reservation service http://www.guestinitaly.com/hotels/rome/r011.htm but they charge 30 Euro fee.

Phone: 06/5809921
Fax: 06/5818853

Hotel Positano—90 Euro (no breakfast) confirmed from e-mail. They are awaiting credit card info. Reviewed on Hostelz.com and BUG Europe. Mixed reviews, most referred to hostel aspect of it rather than Hotel. Good location near main train station.

Casa di Santa Brigida—Frommers liked it, couldn't get anything from their web site. Sent Fax 17 August. They never responded

Colors Hotel—No pricing information on their web site. Booking by fax only. Prices not on web site www.colorshotel.com. Faxed them for information on August 17^th. Found them on Hostelz.com. They never responded to Fax.

Hotel Cristoforo Columbo—121 Dollars per night, through hotels.com. About 15-20 minute commute to tourist areas of Rome. Nice reviews from hotel review site.Hotel Contilia—Well liked by Frommer, 138 Euro's per night cheapest rate from Hotels.com. Decent reviews online

Holiday Inn Express Rome East Via VIA GIORGIO PERLASCA 50—96 Euros per night. Mediocre location, about 5 kilometers from everything. No reviews. Reservation cannot be modified or canceled once made at the 96 Euro rate.

Hotel Arenula—120 Euro per night. Frommers likes it, Nice reviews on trip advisor but we are waiting for info to come in from apartments etc.

Hotel des artistes—157 Dollars per night direct from web site www.hoteldesartistes.com. Good location (near train station), mixed but mostly postitive reviews on tripadvisor.com. Rates on travel sites more than rate direct from hotel.

National Rooms Hotel—164 Dollars per night. Good location, only one review and it was mediocre.

Hotel Executive—116 Euros per night. OK location, mostly bad reviews from people dissappointed it wasn't a four star hotel when it claimed to be (actually a 2 star hotel).

Principessa Tea Hotel—130 Euros per night. Good location, but mostly bad reviews.

The Secret Garden/Hotel Lawrence—63-125 Euro. Www.hotel-lawrence-rome.com no reviews. Web site shows really nice hotel. Since they seemed to be linked to Il Castello which is getting bad reviews for ethical behavior and are changing their name, I am wary.

Il Castello—60-120 Euro www.ilcastello.com. Tripadvisor.com reviews say Il Castelo did not hold reserved, confirmed rooms and sent customers to another hotel that was hard to find. Nightmare experience. Some reviews—basic accomodations. Link to another similar basic hotel.

Michelangelo Palace Hotel—120 Euros per night. Mostly bad reviews on hostelz.com site (nothing on tripadvisor.com).

Various Hostels at Hostelz.com—Not many with private baths, but fairly easy to find private room for 100 dollars per night.

Villa San Pio—$244 per night Good reviews on Tripadvisor.com and Fodors. Too much money.

Hotel Pavia—Min95 Euros-Max 190 Euros per night. Fromers liked it. Mixed reviews on TripAdvisor.com —Road near hotel smells of Urine.

Hotel La Residencia—Highly rated by Frommer, but blacked out for late September dates.

Hotel Pineta Palace—125 Dollars per night, but bad reivews and not near public transportation (15 Euro cab ride to city center).

Hotel Galeno—OctopusTravel.com—147 Dollars per night. But small rooms, negative reviews for tourists, not walking distance to sites or close to metro

Pisana Palace—OctopusTravel.com--150 Dollars per nigh. But, mixed reviews, not close to things.

Sorrento/Positano

Hotel Desiree—Excellent recommendation in lonely planet. Fawning reviews on tripadvisor.com. Faxed on 18 August. Awaiting reply. Received reply August 18, available, faxed credit card number. This is where we stayed.

Hotel Elios—Good recommendation in Lonely Planet Italy guide. 1 good review on tripadvisor.com. No fax number or e-mail. Call 081 878 18 12. Just signed up for long distance dial around service (everdial) so that I can call.

La Fenice—Positano. Bad reviews lately. Good reviews in the past.

Villa Rosa--Positano. We decided to stay in Sorrento, so this became a moot point.

Sicily--Taormina

Hotel Villa Catrina – Sent e-mail form in directly to hotel, 98 Euro per night. Can also be booked from web sites. They have availability per 18 August e-mail. Awaiting credit card info. Sent card info August 18^th. This is where we stayed.

http://www.hotelvillacaterina.it/

Hotel Condor – Venere.com, 80 Euro per night

Why the blog, why the name?

2004-10-21T16:24:00.000-07:00

It's clear that Blogs are becoming an important marketing tool and perhaps an important part of an externalization trend. By externalization I mean the way companies are beginning to publish their internal data and conversations to form a much tighter relationships with customers. I want to be conversant with the practices of blogging so I can use it in marketing and what better way to start than to have my own blog.

Despite having some "professional" goals, this blog will be decidedly personal. Personal just to make it fun for me. If it is fun for you, I hope you enjoy it.

The name "Stochastic Thoughts" means, of course, Random thoughts. I have always thought random processes were pretty cool and was surprised that "Random" become a high tech put down for awhile. I think that "Random" is coming more into fashion along with non-linear while "Determistic" and "Linear" thinking are getting more of a bad rap these days. In any case, the blog will be quite random because my overall agenda for the blog is simply learning and sharing what comes into my mind.