December 31, 2001

 
Airport check-in in San Jose was a little lengthy, though at least unlike Portland passing through the security gate was a snap. The Southwest flight hit a little turbulence, but otherwise it was uneventful.

We rang in the new year at a party thrown by Matt and Ginger. There, the group of us (Matt, Ginger, Dennis, Maria, JJ, Heather, David, Erin and I) played a couple of party games, set off fireworks at midnight, and munched on yummy food. It was a good way to both close 2001—a very good year for us despite world events—and to ring in 2002.

In that same spirit of friendship, all the best for the new year.

 December 30, 2001—Los Altos, California

 
We attended Mass with our friends Brian and Debbie and their daughter Erin, before heading out to breakfast at Stacks. Afterward, we returned to their home and continued chatting. All are doing well, and little Erin continues to be one of the cutest pixies on the planet. Brian, a religion and philosophy teacher, gave us several books on biblical scholarship, and I'm eager to read them. (I always learn something—usually quite a lot—from the books he gives us.)

That evening, we dined at a Turkish restaurant with our friends Maurice and Debi. Maurice is a team and product manager for IBM. He's working on a huge storage server (hundreds of terabytes in other words) for banks and major corporations. It sounds like an amazing project. Debi is a Spanish language college prof, currently teaching (and running herself ragged) at Ohlone College.

After dinner, we went to their town home and saw their beautiful ailing German Shepherd, Lucy. Lucy suffers from the canine equivalent of MS. She's lost use of her hind legs, and has to be helped outside and around the house. They have a two-wheel cart she be strapped into for a little self-propelled fun, and she's in no pain, but that's almost the full extent of the upside. At some point cost and quality of life will become major issues, and given that the monthly medicines are already running $800, it's already something of a struggle. You just wish sometimes that bad things didn't happen.

That sad note aside, I wish all our days could be this much fun. Seeing friends of this calibre is simply delightful, and we're already working on a summer visitation schedule.

 December 25, 2001—Christmas / Los Altos, California

 
Dear friends and family, our sincerest best wishes to you and your loved ones this holiday season. Merry Christmas!

 December 24, 2001

 
I hit the big number 5 for my pheresis donations today. That's five gallons they've pumped outta my veins, and I'm happy to report that on this particular go-round everything went as smoothly as can be expected for a guy with tons of scar tissue built up in his left arm. I'm not all black-and-blue like last time, and who knows whose life I may have helped to save? Gallon five also means I get my name up on the wall, so the bonus is some ego-gratification.

To kill time, I ended up watching Johnny Carson's greatest Tonight Show moments from the '70s, '80s and '90s. Very enjoyable career highlights from the king of late night. I grew up with Carson, so some of it was familiar. A number of the bits were very funny, and though I don't know if these are videos you can pick up at Blockbuster or Hollywood, if you can they're worth a shot.

Last night we watched the teen sex comedy American Pie (the original script to which was called, "Untitled Teenage Sex Comedy That Can Be Made For Under $10 Million That Most Readers Will Probably Hate But I Think You Will Love"). While it had its share of embarrassingly funny moments, I have something of a take-it-or-leave-it attitude toward the film. I prefer humor that's more intellectual and less crude and scatological. Also, the "let's all lose our virginity" schtick has been done to death. There are enough twists to keep things interesting, but I don't know if it's enough to overcome my moral and philosophical objections (which, for the most part, sit on the back burner since this is, after all, a comedy) to the premise. At least they all use condoms.

More troubling, though, is that I must be incredibly desensitized at this point, given that the unrated version we saw seemed like your run-of-the-mill Rated-R picture. Imagine my consternation to find that they had to submit the film four different times to avoid NC-17, and what we saw should have been the NC-17 equivalent. That the movie grossed over $101 million domestically must say something about American culture—or American teen culture anyway.

American Pie is, by all accounts, an above average teen sex comedy, but being better than Porky's isn't much of a measuring stick. You could skip this whole genre and not been worse off for it. If you're unwilling to do that, American Pie may be as good as it gets.

 December 22, 2001

 
My friend Julie was in town from New York, and we did breakfast this morning so we could catch up before she travels back across the country to take a job in Hartford, Connecticut. She's just about done with her Master's Thesis at NYU and hopes to have that finished before the student loans kick in. Her new position in Hartford at an art gallery/museum will certainly help in that regard. Hartford's only 2 hours from New York and Boston, but living expenses are about half what they are in either city.

Dave came over around noon. He was good enough to hang with me and go Christmas shopping. Traffic was terrible, but it's not that big a deal when you're just hangin' and don't really need to get anywhere in a hurry. I really enjoy spending time with him.

We've been trying—we really have—to get all the Christmas cards out this year. We're not done yet. We shoot these puppies out to over 100 different people/families, and this year I made the questionable decision to go with cards instead of the more typical (for us) form letter. Next year we will return to the form letter! We've spent hours on this, and we'll be lucky if some of you folks see holiday greetings before 2002. Sorry about that if you're one of those. We're working on it!

 December 21, 2001

 
Matt and Ginger have definitely decked the halls for Christmas, and last night their home made an ideal venue for a group of us to meet with Bruce who was in town from D.C. Robin, Matt, Ginger, Erin, Bruce, and I sat down to a terrific dinner, discussed various personality types, and generally caught up on life. My favorite part of the holidays may be that we get the opportunity to see people we don't generally get the chance to see. Thanks to Matt and Ginger for the hosting, and to Bruce and Robin for helping to create such a great evening.

Given the holidays, I've more or less concluded my work with SiteRev.com for the year, and what a year it was! Every fiscal quarter in succession was a record-setter financially. I've met and worked with a variety of very talented, interesting and smart people this year, and this all occurred within the context of "getting paid for doing what I love to do."

Importantly, this success has enabled me to build my home recording studio, and if I can ever manage to work my way through Digital Performer's thousand page manual, there should be nothing stopping me from churning out an album. Well, except for lack of talent, but I seem to have misplaced the "how to" book on that. Hehe.

 December 18, 2001

 
We had Ken, an appliance technician from United Repair, out to diagnose the problem with the dryer. Turns out that Kelly's delivery and installation guys didn't tighten everything down when they attached the electrical plug to the machine, and a couple wires got loose and shorted. The tech was able to fix everything on the spot, and after reporting to John Tate, Kelly's manager, he turned the phone over to me.

John was willing to either give us a new dryer or $75 to keep the one we have. I picked Door #2 and grabbed the money. John will also call Maytag to get us the full 1-year repair warranty and he will, of course, pay for Ken's service call. That seemed agreeable to me.

Another factor was that, according to Ken, all the problems we've experienced with the dryer have been because of poor delivery or installation. I wasn't inclined to see if Kelly's could get it right a second time, especially since I now have a dryer that's been given hands-on inspection by a pro. That's usually the biggest beef people have about buying anything used: You don't know what might be wrong with it. Here, that issue is eliminated, and we get some money back. Dunno if my thinking here is correct or not, but that was my thought process. Ken also said there's no reason why the dryer we've got won't last a good 12-15 years.

I talked with Garr for a couple hours yesterday, and it looks like the second loligo album will be out in late January or early February. At least that's the hope. That last 10 percent always seems to take the longest. I've heard every song live, and it's shaping up to be a great CD. I'm hoping to connect up with Garr to get some recording tips for my own stuff sometime in January as well.

 December 15, 2001

 
Erin and I watched Chocolat last night and The Emperor's New Groove this evening. Both are recommended though not unreservedly.

Chocolat is an engaging, well-made film. The performances are excellent, the cinematography superb, and the direction sure-handed. It's also intellectually dishonest, but perhaps subtly so, and I concede that I may be shouting into the wind in my frustration with this film.

Without giving anything away, let me say simply that the subtext of the movie is one big Straw Man argument for tradition and that change as depicted here is unrealistic. Tradition has its place and its virtues; to say otherwise is, minimally, to ignore human history and psychology. Change is also much more unnerving than this film allows. Indeed, significant change is typically cataclysmic, and to paint it as one big festival of joy is to make light of the suffering people undergo to get there. (At least the film does not completely fail on this account.)

Chocolat is undeniably worth seeing, and it's a funny and enjoyable trip. One just wishes it were a little more intellectually grounded. Recommended nonetheless.

The Emperor's New Groove is Disney's best animated film in years. Thematically it doesn't hold a candle to anything Pixar has done, and the "don't be selfish" theme grows a little tiresome. Surely the audience—including the young 'uns—grasped this in the first 15 minutes. Guess Disney didn't think so 'cause here's an entire 78 minute movie for them to figure it out. That complaint aside, Groove is the funniest thing Disney's released, well, perhaps ever. Entertainment is where this film is at, and entertain it does. Recommended.

We attended the neighborhood Christmas block party last night, and it was a pleasure to chat with our friends and neighbors. The food was great and the conversation fascinating (we live next to some really bright and interesting folks!). Even better, this event built on the summer get-together Erin and I organized. Apparently the neighborhood used to do these sorts of things years ago, but it just petered out. We couldn't be happier that people are as excited as we are that these things are rolling again.

 December 13, 2001

 
I paid a visit to the Marion County Courthouse this morning in response to a jury summons. After checking in, the roughly 80 of us filled out a questionnaire, turned that in, and watched an overly patriotic 20 minute video on the virtues of the American judicial system and juries specifically. A good 60 of the folks were called upstairs for a trial while the rest of us lounged around, read books and magazines, and glanced over occasionally at the Shrek video playing on the TV.

About two hours after my arrival, a group of about 15 of us were excused from duty and released for the rest of the day. I figured early on that no defense lawyer worth his salt would pass me through voir dire (the vetting process for potential jurors). Though we weren't given specifics as to why we were excused, my guess is that as a graduate of the Salem Police Department's Citizen Police Academy and as a the neighborhood association's police-association liaison, they might think me biased. I'm sure it didn't help that my uncle and cousin were both in law enforcement and that Dad spent 25 years working for Corrections.

Ah well, I slept poorly last night, so I probably would've fallen asleep mid-trial anyway. I'm now exempt from jury service for another two years.

 December 12, 2001

 
Dave and I traveled I-5 from different directions so we could meet up in Corvallis at last night's Corvallis Macintosh Users Group (CMUG) meeting. There we watched a Mac question-and-answer session and a couple of presentations on Mac OS X 10.1, one of which was led by Apple's head of user groups Garr Reynolds. (I'll discuss all this a little more in the Macintosh section.) It was great to see Dave—who looks terrific, by the way—and we both had a good time—plus we came away with some free shirts and pens and such. That's my kinda meeting!

 December 11, 2001

 
So our still-under-warranty Maytag dryer trips the circuit breaker and goes kaput. I reset the breaker and try again, but outside of repeatedly pressing the Start button, what's someone other than an appliance technician to do? So I call up Maytag and say, "Hey here's the scoop: We bought this dryer on 7/25/01 and now it doesn't work." And Deanna, the Maytag Solutions Manager, says to me, she says, "Well, because the dryer was a used model, your one-year warranty started on 6/05/01." And I said, "Used?!? You're telling me this dryer that we bought brand-new from Kelly's was USED?!?" It was a very informative conversation.

As you might imagine, I called Kelly's. After calmly laying out my story to a sales rep, I got kicked up the chain of command to John Tate, Kelly's Store Manager. His records don't show our dryer as used any more than our records do, but since the dryer's not working, he wasn't inclined to argue. Like all good salesmen, he'd rather keep a satisfied customer.

Next Tuesday, we'll see a Maytag certified repair guy who will diagnose the problem for John's benefit. He'll be followed by a delivery truck from Kelly's. Those guys will remove this dryer and plop down a new one. Works for me.

 December 9, 2001

 
I watched the Rams defeat the 49ers in convincing fashion, and although this is a commentary better left to the Sports section, I'm foreseeing a Rams v. Steelers Super Bowl. Steelers beat the Jets in the 1 o'clock game. I listened in to the radio broadcast via NFL.com, and although the Steeler announcers are loony as bats, it's a great thing to be able to hear the game. It uses RealPlayer (boo! hiss!) instead of QuickTime (yay! yay!), but for the most part it works well.

Bret came down and the family did a pizza night out at Larson's Family Pizza. Good food and nice atmosphere, but very spendy. Hard to go with a large for Larson's at $21.50 when you can get two mediums from Papa John's for $12.99. Nice place, but -yoiks!- those prices.

Joe called me up for a little online StarCraft action, and we logged onto Battle.Net and went at it. Having never played before, I was awful. I controlled a race of Zergs, and pretty much didn't get a handle on things until late in the proceedings—far too late to effect a victorious outcome. Fortunately, Battle.Net failed just prior to Joe's final assault and my forces were spared ignominious defeat. Pretty fun for an $8 game. Many thanks to Joe for the numerous pointers and tips as we chatted by phone during the two hour gameplay. I'm looking forward to the rematch.

 December 7, 2001

 
I know it was the anniversary of Pearl Harbor and all, but some days are just really good days, and I think you've got to take them when they come regardless of the historical bummers which might be attached. So I ended up having a really good day today. My attitude has been rather chipper all week, but for whatever reason today was extra happy. It helped that I got a lot done on a number of different fronts, I suppose, but I can't really point to a catalyst or a singular event which particularly buoyed my mood.

Dad and I went to the library, and I enjoyed that a lot. Checked out a bunch of books on a diverse range of topics: Horses, brain teasers, sumo wrestling, bicyling, and so on. As many of you know, I'm a nonfiction kinda reader in general (though I'm currently flipping my way through the Pulitizer Prize-winning novel The Shipping News). I'll be wandering into Barbara Tuchman's The Proud Tower after that. I like reading. I should read more.

I sent in my initial purchase for Utilicorp United (UCU-NYSE) which is, as I said on November 27, one of my latest picks for all you discriminating conservative investors out there. Given the 5 percent DRIP discount the company offers and the 4.4 dividend yield, an investor starts plus 9.4 percent before any growth. That's my kinda stock! I also happen to think that now is a good time to buy because UCU has been somewhat unfairly tarnished by the whole Enron debacle (and Utilicorp does have an exposure of $71 million), but this will be a short-lived, one-time problem. Going forward, there's nothing here to stand in the way of profits as I see it.

And while I'm on the subject of investing, I guess it's as good a time as any to spill the beans on our portfolio. It's not really a trade secret or anything—I've mentioned many of these before—but here's what stocks we're holding right now in case you're wondering: Zweig Total Return (ZTR-NYSE), Utilicorp United (UCU-NYSE), Schering-Plough (SGP-NYSE), MDU Resources Group (MDU-NYSE), Heinz (HNZ-NYSE), Genuine Parts (GPC-NYSE), Comerica (CMA-NYSE), American Water Works (AWK-NYSE), and Apple (AAPL-NASDAQ).

I'm obviously biased, but there is a lot to like in this group. Hehe. Zweig currently pays a 9.1 percent yield. Utilicorp I've detailed above. Schering-Plough has had some major manufacturing problems, and frankly, I'm not too keen on them at the moment. I think their problems are going to get a lot worse before they get better, and I don't see it as a temporary situation like I do with UCU because one of the major issues that Scherling-Plough faces is that their multi-billion dollar allergy drug Claritin loses patent protection in 2002. They have a replacement in the pipeline called Clarinex but early reports are that it really doesn't offer much improvement over Claritin.

MDU I know next to nothing about. Their stock was a gift from Dad, so I can tell you MDU is a utility and that's about it. If Dad picked it, I'm sure it's OK. (I can tell you that MDU has no Enron exposure.) Heinz is the A-rated ketchup company based in Pittsburgh. If Heinz Field is good enough for the Steelers, Heinz the company is good enough for me. Hehe. Genuine Parts is a auto parts supply company. They've been profitable and well-run for years. Comerica is a Detroit-based bank that I picked last month before their stock rocketed up $6 a share. Unfortunately, I still don't have my DRIP going with them, so I've already missed out on some early gains. I think there's more to come, but it's a shame I didn't have lots of extra cash to plop into their stock a month ago. Of course it's a shame I don't have a lot of extra cash, period.

American Water Works is simply one of my all-time favorites. Great company, wonderful stock. They're being bought out by a German utility for $46 a share in a deal that should close in late 2002. They've been an absolute home run for us as an investment, and I'll be really sorry to remove them from the portfolio when the time comes. Apple is, well, Apple. I violated my own investment guidelines to purchase 50 shares, and I've been in negative territory with their stock ever since. Serves me right, but I do think they're one of the companies which will lead the way out of the recession. They have way too many cool products coming down the pipeline. The iPod is just the beginning.

For mutual funds, we've got Fidelity Dividend Growth (FDGFX), Fidelity Low-Priced Stock (FLPSX), Fidelity Growth & Income (FDGRIX), Fidelity Growth Company (FDGRX), and Scudder International (SCINX). All the Fidelity funds are rated either four or five stars (out of five) and are, IMHO, winners. The Scudder fund has done less well—achieving only a three star rating from Morningstar—but it provides much of our international exposure, and frankly, a lot of the overseas economies stunk in the '90s, so whaddya do? I continue to think it'll be OK going forward, and, as I say, it's important in terms of our asset diversification. All our mutual funds are in retirement accounts so they're tax sheltered as far as capital gains and dividends are concerned.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Anybody out there have any investing questions, send'em on in. I'm not an investment or financial professional, but I play one on the Internet.

 December 6, 2001

 
It was at yesterday's Police-Neighborhoods Liaison meeting yesterday that I finally was able to corner an officer and get the scoop about turns from a two-way street onto a one way. Basically, they're legal even if you cross traffic to do it. It seems counterintuitive to me, but who am I to argue with a police captain? If he doesn't know the law, we're all in trouble.

Erin and I watched Galaxy Quest, a Star Trek-like spoof starring Tim Allen, Sigorney Weaver, and Alan Rickman. It was very Tim Allen-ish in terms of humor, so if you like him, you'll like this. Amusing enough as mindless entertainment goes, and some of the jokes are really quite funny. Not philosophically deep over anything, but I'd say it's worth the rental.

 December 3, 2001

 
I watched Basic Instinct starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone and thought it was surprisingly good. Perhaps my expectations were set too low, but it's sexy, suspenseful film noir. Douglas is convincing as a psychologically messed up cop on the trail of a killer, and Stone is brilliant. (Hopefully I'm not just saying that because she's also every kind of naked in this movie, but I confess my view may be clouded.)

This is a whodunnit pre-DNA evidence, and with network shows like CSI and Law & Order regularly solving criminal cases more complex than this it's a little jarring to see the cops in such a quandry over solving a murder. Still, I think it succeeds on its own merits as long as we're willing to accept that criminal forensic technology wasn't then where it is today.

The film is graphically violent and sexual. Indeed in this movie foreplay is danger and sex is violence—that being perhaps the movie's central theme. Basic Instinct echoes Hitchcock, offers snappy and witty dialog, and gives us excitement and suspense throughout. As psychological thrillers go, this is pretty good. Recommended.

 December 1, 2001

 
Excite@Home shut down internet service to all AT&T customers (including me), but AT&T Broadband did OK in my book. They had service switched over for Oregon and Washington residents same-day, and at this particular point my Internet speed might be even faster than it was before. Excite@Home can go the way of the do-do, and I'm OK with that too.

Continuing our Mars theme, Erin and I watched Mission to Mars, a thriller(?) starring Don Cheadle, Tim Robbins, and Gary Sinese. This may have been the most boring movie I've seen in the last year, and given that I've seen more films in the last 12 months than, well, probably ever, that's saying something. The proceedings are tedious to the point where you starting talking back to the screen just to liven things up. There are some major dialogue clunkers in here too, but Mission isn't bad enough to be good. It's just bad. Not recommended.

Today marks the 11 year anniversary (if you will) of the day Erin and I started going out. Those 11 years have been better than I've had any right to expect, but if we're lucky it's only the tip of the iceberg. Given our life expectancies, I'm hoping for another 50-60 years.

Even with the greatness of the past and what is today, I think the best is yet to come.