Thursday January 01, 2009

Miss you already

Rest in peace my dearest grandmother, just a few weeks shy of her 90th birthday. Her contagious laughter and  unending desire to have a good time (and to tell you how to do it) will never be forgotten.  Also, to my beloved uncle, who passed away just 45 minutes before his own mother in different parts of the country. You will both be missed terribly.

Friday November 14, 2008

What on earth are the credit card companies up to?

I've heard a lot of cautionary advice over the last few weeks about watching the mail for updates to credit card agreements and that the credit card companies were doing a lot of sneaky tricks to attempt to get more money from the consumers, so I was surprised when a letter from my Chase United Airlines credit card came and informed me that my fixed rate would be lowered from %14.99 to %7.99.  Then more surprised when an innocuous "update" to my card holder agreement arrived saying that as of January 2009, the card would switch to a variable rate of up to %29.99 APR.  No indication of what the initial rate would be or of any controls on when or how often the rate would change.  The first letter looked like a regular personal letter, the "update" was a small piece of seeming junk mail. Now, I don't carry a balance on this card, so it doesn't really matter to me, but this really seems like a bait-and-switch type activity. Tell folks loud & clear how low their new fixed APR is, right before the holidays to encourage spending - then slip in a large rate increase in January. It was very clear that the new rate would apply to existing balances.

Isn't this the type of thing that is now known as predatory lending? Of course, neither piece of mail came with a phone number or contact for questions...

Tuesday November 04, 2008

Voting

I got myself to my polling place around 9AM this morning, finding it a bustle of activity, but no real lines.  California is trying to really push voting-by-mail and if your polling place does not have enough in-person voters, it will be shut down and anyone in that precinct will be required to vote-by-mail.  There are many concerns about voting by mail: ease of coercing a vote, stolen ballots, undelivered ballots, ballots returned with insufficient postage after the deadline to vote, etc. There are provisions for people who did not receive their ballot to go & vote by person in their polling place, but then they only get a provisional ballot - one with a complicated procedure for determining whether or not it will be counted.  For those reasons I show up in person, but the thing I found odd is that there are three polling places in the one building where I go to vote. Wouldn't it make more sense to combine these polling places rather than get rid of them all together? Really, it wouldn't effect my voting at all - two of the polling places are in the same room, but I have not heard of any cases of combining polling places.  If my polling place ever goes extinct, I guess I'll have to go line up at the registrars office.

All the same, I believe this is a very important election for our country and for the state of California, where we seem to love ballot initiatives. If you haven't done so yet, please get out there and vote!

Monday October 20, 2008

Welcome to Avany Llyse I now have an third niece, bringing my total nieces and nephews to 11.  I've now seen a bunch of pictures of her, and all 8 pounds 3 ounces are as cute as can be! I can't wait to meet her in person. :-) (2008-10-20 07:59:32.0) Permalink Comments [0]

Tuesday August 26, 2008

Pat Mitchell talks to Sun Women!

I was so lucky to get to attend in person the talk by Pat Mitchell, a Sun board member, given to women at Sun a few weeks back. Ms Mitchell, an energetic and intelligent speaker, captivated the "in studio" audience as she regaled us with tales of starting her own production company for women, starting her own talk show, Woman to Woman, and acting as an anchor on the Today show.  Now, you have to wonder how a woman so involved in television came to be involved witht he Sun board of directors.  Her career path is a staggered one, starting out just trying to do something she enjoyed - teaching!  She then moved into writing articles for Look magazine and others, finding a new path for her to release her creative juices!

Ms. Mitchell talked quite extensively about how the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) actually helped her and other women to get jobs in the 1970s - and helped her get a myriad of experience. When the EEOC first went into effect, each TV station only had to have one woman in some job, but they liked to put their token hire in a position of prominent position so that everyone could see they were compliant. This is how she was able to hit the ground running and get real experience - though she did note that having such visible jobs that she didn't necessarily have all the training up front for did lead to extra scrutiny and occasional negative attention.

Ms. Mitchell found that women in media in the 1970s and early 1980s were expected to dress like men (we all remember those power-suits, right?), lower their voices to sound more like men, and to never discuss women's issues - but she decided to follow her own voice, which led her in very different directions!  She soon discovered, though, that "talent"didn't get to make decisions on what stories were covered, who got hired or who got promoted.  Feeling the frustration, she started her own production company to do things her way and to get all the experience associated with the business.  Doing this led her to her first real executive position at Turner Broadcasting - a job she held for 10 years.  Mitchell found Turner to be a fantastic mentor and only laments that her mentors were few & far between, and that she never had a woman mentor (as she seemed to always be breaking ground!).

When she found she no longer had a place after Turner merged with Time Warner (she notes that many women seemed to have lost their grounding), she nearly went back to teaching - only to get a call from PBS out of the blue.  Mitchell loves her job at PBS, but found the pay was not quite the equal of a company like Turner.  That is when she began taking jobs on corporate boards to make up the pay gap, and found she really enjoyed being able to contribute to companies she otherwise would've found unapproachable. She finds many boards appreciate her communication skills, knowledge of the entertainment business and her general business acumen.

Mitchell gave some fantastic advice for us all as well. She stated that women need to be comfortable with their own power - not only is it okay to have power, but you should use it and be able to redefine it, to have it work for you in a way that is not intimidating. Do all that and still be authentic.

She notes that you should also not be afraid of taking risks and that she's never seen anyone win anything through patience.

Related to that, Mitchell shared some of her grandmother's wisdom with us all: "Falling on your face is at least a forward movement."

Wednesday May 07, 2008

Professional Business Women of California Conference

I was so fortunate last week to get to attend the Professional Business Women of California's conference in San Francisco. This was my first time attending the event, and I was overwhelmed with everything that went on.  Every speaker was top notch, even at the sessions, and the booths in the expo were filled with many interesting things - some career oriented, others more personal - like jewelry or health care.  My only complaint is that with 6000 women in the Moscone Center, the 30 minute breaks were not really long enough.

The opening keynote from Martha Beck was surprisingly inspirational, as I don't normally find myself going for "feel good mumbo jumbo" - but I guess that's why her talk worked for me, she had substance behind her stories.  Dr. Beck was talking about her own life and how she learned to "follow her joy" to find a career that both inspired her and that she was successful in.  She noted that many people come to her, in her role as a life coach, and tell her they just don't know what to do with themselves.  She found that they actually do know, but either think they can't do what they love or don't know how to get started.  This gave me a moment to reflect in the joy I find in the work I do. True, there are days that aren't so "joyful", but having a rewarding job that I generally enjoy makes me a very lucky person, I think!

David Garibaldi, "Rhythm & Hue", was an amazing performance artist who made 6 foot portraits of both Congresswoman Jackie Speier and Madeleine Albright live, to perfect rhythm of the music, right before our eyes. It was very impressive!

I spent my morning in "Going Green: How Women's Economic Power and Counterintuitive Business Practices Can Make a Difference" where Diane Maceachern, Big Green Purse LLC, and Gary Hirshberg, Stonyfield Farm, spoke about green practices in our every day lives and in businesses and how they can actually save money in the bottom line.  Diane, who also authored Big Green Purse, noted that women are responsible for spending of 85 cents of every consumer dollar spent - making an excellent point that if we all make wise consumer choices, we can shift the market.  As an example, she noted that in 1999 there were no hybrid cars being sold commercially.  Suddenly in 2004, there were 88,000. Car makers took note. In 2004 there were not enough hybrids to meet demand and by 2007 more than 315,000 hybrids were sold.  Automakers went from pushing back on legislators demanding more fuel efficiency, saying there was no demand, to coming up with more options on their own.  A perfect example of how consumer demand can shift the marketplace faster than legislation.

She strongly recommends everyone to install water filters in their own house and use refillable bottles for water on the go - it's cheaper, and much more environmentally friendly.

Gary Hirshberg was also very interesting, talking about how sometimes searching for a more environmentally procedure for your business, you will find something that is also cheaper.  As an example, he noted how UPS had changed many of its routes to eliminate left hand in town turns - saving millions of dollars of fuel costs/year.

My highlight came at lunch time when I got to hear a very fascinating Cokie Roberts talk about the founding mothers of our country and all of the work they contributed to the US in our early years, and Madelein Albright talk about women's issues in general.

Albright spoke so eloquently, really giving me pause to think about everything that is going on in the world.  She noted that it is impossible to have a true democracy in a society where women are treated as second class citizens, and that anyone who abuses the dignity of one group, whether it be women or a specific race or class, is a security threat to us all.  In that vein, she urged all women to be willing to help each other, stand up for each other, and fight for education of women around the world. When the issue of the Queen Bee Syndrome was brought up, Albright noted that it is indeed an actual problem, but she felt "There's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other."

The day wound up with an energizing talk from Meagen Johnson on the four different generations in the workplace right now, Traditional, Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Millenials. She talked extensively about how baby boomers are really team oriented, whereas Gen X folks are more self motivated and generally prefer working independently.  A neat technology point she made is that most boomers did not work with a computer until they had a full time job after graduating college. Folks from the Gen X generation on the other hand grew up with computers in the schools (I still remember my schools Apple IIe and playing Oregon Trail!).  Millenials, though, grew up with a computer always around.  It was a fun talk that made light of many multi-generational issues, yet at the same time got me to thinking.

Overall, the conference was amazing and I could not recommend it enough!

Thursday March 20, 2008

Absentee ballot voter fraud I've long had my suspicions about the potential for fraud with absentee ballots, and this article out of the UK shows just how easy it is to abuse the absentee ballot situation. Someone actually used this to rig an election! This is a tricky issue, because obviously we do not want to disenfranchise folks who cannot make it to the polls, whether due to travel, work or disability, but a lot of states, including California, are trying to move as many people to vote absentee as possible.  We've already seen problems with stolen ballots in the state of Oregon, which votes 100% absentee. I wonder what it will take to get the powers that be to seriously look into the implications of all of this.  Not that voting in person is much better. I reregistered with my new name this year, but my polling place still had me under my old name. They let me vote with a normal ballot (vs a provisional one) anyways.  Also, my parents said that for years after I left Indiana my name was still listed at the polling place by their house.  (2008-03-20 14:47:53.0) Permalink Comments [1]

Monday November 05, 2007

Caltrain based pubcrawl!

We had a blast! There are lots of pubs & dive bars near Caltrain stations, which we've seen every time we've taken the train up to San Francisco from Mountain View - so on Saturday, 11 of us hopped on the 11:19AM train from the Mountain View station and got of at 4th and King in the city. 

We arrived just in time for a fantastic lunch at the 21st Amendment. The beers were tasty and the food was hot and delicious.  We hoped to get another pretrain beer at the Hotel Utah, only to find they were not open at 2:30PM on a Saturday. No hours were posted, either, so I don't know if they were supposed to be or not. (checking their website: they are not open on Saturday afternoons - bummer!)

When we arrived at the train station, we noticed an announcement saying the southbound train would be leaving 15-20 minutes late, so thinking we had 45 minutes 'til the next train left some of our group went off hunting an open bar.  I got nervous when I saw the northbound train arrive only about 5 minutes late (especially since it arrived at the platform marked "next train"). So instead of going to the bar, we all just picked up travelers for the train (some got coffee, some got beer). It turns out, the sign was out of date & had been a message left up for the 2PM train which was running late! Our train left right on time! *whew*

We hopped off the train Burlingame to drink beer at the Steelhead Brewery Co.  The one bartender was a bit frazzled, but we got all our beers and pool balls in a timely manner and had a very fun hour hanging out in the relaxing pool hall portion of the bar. Amy & I split a beer sampler, which was a fun way to try 8 beers without over doing it. :-) When it was time to get to the station, we were all a bit disappointed.  After seeing all of the other bars & restaurants near this train station, we really could've spent all day in Burlingame!

We wandered back on to the train, bypassed San Mateo, and got off in Belmont, meeting up with the 12th person from our group and headed over to Ausiello's Tavern. We had even more fun here with the tasty pitchers of micro brews, peanuts in their shells, shuffleboard and darts.  It turns out that our visitors from Boston are very serious about the rules for darts (cricket), and there were no "do-overs" for really lousy shots.  As it was, we still had a close game (though they ruled with the points). We were having so much fun, we decided to stay at this stop for 2 full hours.  Of course, about 10 minutes after 5:43 left Belmont, our group got antsy and started asking when the next train was going to be.  Another round of beers settled the natives until we could catch the 6:43 out of town.

We then went on a hunt of dive bars in San Carlos.  Our first choice, which will remain unnamed, was filled with people smoking cigarettes. As we had several folks with asthma in the group, not to mention nobody wanted to smell like that, we gave it a miss.  We then popped our heads into Sneakers, which looked like fun - but were told we would have to wait 10 minutes just to even think about ordering drinks.  We were on a schedule! No way were we going to spend 10 minutes of our already dwindling hour just waiting to step into the place!  So, we settled on the Carlos Club - arriving mere moments after happy hour ended. No $2 PBRs for Paul, then!  The beers were good here and service was quick - Karaoke didn't start 'til 10, though, so we had to leave without singing our hearts out. :(

Next stop was in Redwood City at the City Pub!  Our group of 12 was promptly seated, and beers were quickly brought out. The eccentric menu proved to have something for everyone. I loved my crab cakes & heard great things about the turkey burgers. Yum! While they are not a brewery, they did have a large selection of micro brews which we all enjoyed.  As we realized this was going to be the last stop for our San Jose couple, we attempted to get them a quick shot - only to find out that the City Pub does not have a license for hard liquor. Ah, well, it was probably for the best!

Our last stop was at the San Antonio station, where we wandered through back roads (led by our Mountain View native) to Fred's Place. It is one of our favorite local dive bars in Mountain View. A large selection of beers on tap, good drinks & friendly bartenders.  Always a good way to cap the evening (and walking distance home for the remainder of the group).

Friday October 26, 2007

Good geeky fun song this just popped up on IRC - a guy singing about the basic mess we're in with IPv4 to the tune of American Pie. Definitely worth the extended version listen!  You just might be a networking nerd if you find yourself laughing out loud more than once... ;-) (2007-10-26 14:52:26.0) Permalink

Thursday July 05, 2007

June, I hardly even knew ya...

Wow, what a month!

First, and most importantly,  Mark & I tied the knot on June 2!  It's a lot of work planning a large event from across the country, but it all just turned out so perfectly!  We were married in Foster Park's Bridal Glen in Fort Wayne, IN - we couldn't have pulled it all off without the amazing help of all of our family and close friends.

After we got married, we ran off to NYC and Sonoma, CA to honeymoon for a couple of weeks. It was relaxing not being online, riding our bikes and enjoying long leisurely dinners with just the two of us.

In the middle of June, I returned to the office to find a backlog of several thousand emails. I've made a dent into them, but if you sent me something & never heard back - please try again!

I've been busy with work related to FIPS-140-2 certification of the Solaris Cryptographic Framework and fringe work related to making SUNWcry and SUNWcryr more accessible to the masses.  I'll write up more about that once I know where we stand.

After all of that, I decided I'd captain Team Salty Dawgs again for the American Lung Association's 2 Rock Breathe Easy ride.  It nearly killed me, but I did nearly reach my fund raising goal. Just a bit more & I'd be there.  I do appreciate all the incredibly generous pledges I did get this year - the overall generosity of Sun employee's never ceases to amaze me!

I did the ride last Saturday - 66 miles in 5 hours and 10 minutes of ride time (6 hours and 16 minutes including breaks), 12.8 mph was my average speed, and I burned about 2500 calories. I'd really like to improve that time for next year so that I can get back in time to enjoy the post-ride festivities!  As of now, I'll just try to get rolling about 40 minutes earlier ;-)

 

Wednesday January 24, 2007

Fiesta del Mar is now a limited time engagement

Woe is me, the best Mexican restaurant this side of the Mexican border now has a limited lifetime in Mountain View, its home for the last 16 years.  Normally, I would not be so up in arms about a restaurant closing, but this little place has always made us feel at home, has the most polite and friendly servers and clientelle, unlimited home-made salsa & chips, and delicious hearty entrees that cause a Pavlovian reaction just thinking about them - and this restaurant has done nothing wrong!

A friend of mine noted that this is just capitalism at work, and that my objectivist college background should enable me to see past the loss of this fine establishment, and rejoice in the redevelopment of this into office space.  While that may be true, I just can't get past how this closure seems inherently unfair.  The business itself is thriving! Customers come from as far away as Dublin & San Francisco on a regular basis.  Even when visiting on a Tuesday night, an hour long wait is not unusual.  The staff will happily make you a pitcher of margaritas to bide your time until a table opens up, where they will promptly serve you - all the while engaging you in conversation or teaching you some Spanish, if you're so inclined.

This would be different if the business was failing and someone was coming into Mountain View to revitalize this space, but that's not the case.  As a resident of this fine city, I think it's imperative that we try to keep local flair and flavor, to continue to bring visitors and revenue into the city.

I'm not sure what I can do, but I hope to figure it out soon - any advice?

Friday December 08, 2006

Where does the time go?

I honestly keep meaning to keep this blog more current, but it seems I get distracted doing other work around the office. Oops!  Let's see some recent interesting events:

* In June I had an excellent plastic surgeon (a *real* surgeon, not like the Intern that was useless) remove a giant cell tumor from the tip of my finger.  I was told this would not affect my ability to work.  Um, let's see - had to keep my hand elevated for 72 hours & type one handed.  That was just a bit difficult.  At least it's good to know that those type of tumors are completely benign, but unfortunately very common for women in my age group and are likely to reoccur.  It was a relatively painless surgery, though, and my finger is better than before!

* In July I complained to my eye doctor about blurred vision I'd had for the previous month or so.  An exam showed that my left lens was indeed not strong enough, but a detailed exam with the contacts out showed that my prescription had not changed.  The problem?  An entire box of mislabled contact lenses.  I verified this by using a left lens from another box that I had picked up at the same time: vision problem cleared.  My eye doctor said she'd never heard of any such thing happening, but I figure if I can buy CDs from a store with the wrong music recorded on it, why not the wrong lens in the container?  I'm glad to know I'm not quickly going blind.

 * In August we bought a house. Wow, very different than renting!  I think I should buy stock in the major DIY stores in our area.

 * We hosted for Thanksgiving again, this time our group included a vegetarian and a vegan!  Mark made them a nutloaf to go with the veggies (all cooked in olive oil instead of butter) and everyone seemed to have a good time, though I do think I saw the vegetarian grab one of the bacon wrapped sausage appetizers!  I made my first pies from scratch (okay, store bought crusts) and they came out really well.

 * At work over all these months, I've been busy with Solaris 10 updates, bugtracking issues, working on smartcard related stuff (more on that later) and doing a lot work with the elfsign command.

Speaking of elfsign, I've got more work to do in that arena. Unfortunately, the work I'm doing is all around US export compliance and the source is still closed.  We're constantly in touch with legal hoping things will change, but I'm not holding my breath at this point.

Friday April 21, 2006

Dive Bar tour of Mountain View! Last Saturday night, my friends and I embarked on a walking tour of the dive bars on El Camino in Mountain View.  We started out at the 101 Club, only to find that this very classic Mountain View dive had closed its doors just a couple of months ago.  Pity.

So we walked up to Ugly's.  Ugly's had a surprisingly modern digital jukebox, playing jazz, rock, country - well, a bit of everything!  The bartender was very friendly & quick, and the drinks were reasonably priced.  They have lots of good beer, including Fat Tire, on tap.  It was a small & cozy place, but we didn't stay long because there were more bars to explore!

Next we hit Ron's Farmhouse. True to its name, it had a country theme inside, though it was definitely not a country western club. It was Karaoke night at the Farmhouse, which will always bring out an ecclectic crowd.  The rotations were short, the song selection was good and the singers were, well, Karaoke singers.  I don't think any of us should be expecting recording contracts any time soon ;-).  This was a large place, with snacks on the bar.  The drinks were tasty and again reasonably priced, but no beer on tap.

We've previously toured the dive bars on Middlefield Road, but I feel there are many more we just need to walk in and see what's inside.  My favorite is probably still Fred's Place. Big bar, imports on tap, friendly bartenders and a pool table. :)

Since then I've been trying to get caught up & trying to nurse my grandmother's cat, Queenie, back to health. Unfortunately, he had FIP which is untreatable and fatal.  We lost Queenie Tuesday morning, just after finally receiving a diagnosis. He will be sorely missed.

Tuesday January 03, 2006

Ah, a new year!

Back in the office again.  Having a "winter break" at Sun US is great. Time to totally unwind, and not too many emails when you get back. :-)

I ventured back to the midwest for the holidays to visit my family, and see a couple of friends.  The weather was much more mild than it is here in the SF Bay area and the gas was more expensive - not exactly what I was expecting!  As always, it was a great joy to see my family, especially my niece & nephews (who are growing like weeds)!  These kids are growing up in a completely different world than I did.  As soon as I'd take any of their pictures, they'd immediately run up to me and demand: "Let me see it now, ok?"  No more waiting to finish a role of film and sending it off for processing, just "now". It's a good thing they are so cute.

Now that Solaris 10 Update 1 is out the door, I will get to start focusing more on Solaris Cryptographic Framework stuff again. Yippee!  All the same, I know I promised to go into more detail about how Solaris updates are created and I will... really!

Friday October 07, 2005

Levi Leipheimer & Godspell! Had a GREAT bike ride with Levi Leipheimer on Wednesday, a reward for being one of the top 10 fundraisers for last spring's American Lung Associations bike4breath.  What a fun day!  pictures will be posted soon!

And tonight Godspell opens!  I'm very nervous, but I know we're ready.  We've rehearsed hard, and last night's dress rehearsal went really well.  Anyone in the South San Francisco Bay Area should come down and see us at the Sunnyvale Congregational Church.  I'm working with STOC (Studio Theatre of California) for the first time, and it's been a great experience.
(2005-10-07 14:20:04.0) Permalink Comments [1]