Articles with Editorial Errors

As of late, I have been coming across more and more editorial errors in my reading material.  They used to only appear on cheap reading materials but now they are prevalent in every written media.  I’ve found errors in newspapers,  magazines,  and books.

I am not sure how in the days before computers with spell checks software; editors do a better job than today.  It seems with more technology,  more errors show up on printed material.  I wonder if technology is to blame or editors are getting sloppy with their work.  I find myself irked when I stumble across an error while reading a good book or article.

Maybe I should just get use to this new norm…..

 

15 mins Dinner Plan

Every weekday,  I come home from work frantic trying to get dinner to the table.  I get home about 6:05pm; I am hungry, Ben is hungry and so is J.   We are tired of frozen food bags (with that said, it’s still a life saver once in a awhile).   Ben does not care for it of course,  he is only 16 months!.   So we’ve come up with a dinner plan.   A schedule for easy evening meals.   Yes,  very predictable for a project manager :-) (truth be told it was Jim’s idea).

So we’ve got a two weeks plan and recipes to go with it.   Most of them consist of crock pot recipes, pressure cooker recipes or rice cooker with timer recipes.  So far Ben loves beef stew made in a pressure cooker,  beans and ham soup from the crock pot,  easy weeknight curries and fried rice.   Keeping my fingers cross that this will alleviate the crazy evening rush to get dinner to the table!

So if you have easy weeknight dinner recipes, please send them my way.

 

 

Aaron Swartz

The news of Aaron Swartz’s suicide reached me at about 12:30am, as the story was shooting to the top of Hacker News. I was stunned.

I don’t know Aaron, but I’ve known of him for some time. I independently stumbled across his blog and one of his projects, web.py. It was some time later that I realized it was the same guy. I got curious and started reading about him. At this point I became a follower, in the simplest sense. I was simply amazed at how much the kid had managed to accomplish, and how insightful his writing was. I was blown away when he’d publish his year-end review of books that he’d read. But it wasn’t just a “wow, this kid is a genius” reaction.  It was seeing a highly capable person tear into all manner of activity and push the limits. And it was motivating.

Now he’s dead. The circumstances are still unclear, but it’s hard not to think that the Federal case against him was unrelated. If you’re interested, you can read all about that story, as well and the hundreds of opinions that have been written on whether what was being done to Aaron was right.

For me, I’m just sad. Steve Jobs used the phrase, “make a dent in the universe”, which was an apt description of what Aaron was doing. Now that is stopped, far short of what might have been accomplished.

I had one correspondence with Aaron.  Just over three years ago I wrote him a thank you note, saying how much I appreciated the software he’d written and shared with the world. I got a response:

Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 00:49:07 -0500
To: [email protected]
From: "Aaron Swartz" <[email protected]> 

Thanks. It's really nice to hear feedback like this!

Life post-Facebook, Nine Months On

As the end of 2012 draws near, I approach nearly nine months without Facebook. This past March I deleted my Facebook account. I wasn’t the earliest adopter, but I did have over three years of fairly regular use with the site. When I deleted the account, it was the real deal. People proclaim that they have deactivated their account, but this amounts to little more than logging out for a while. “Delete” is final and unrecoverable. All of your posts, photos and friend links are gone.

Now I want to review the decision and talk about the effects. A lot of posts are written about quitting Facebook by people who have just done so, and the tone of many indicate an intense anti-Facebook sentiment or general backlash against social networking. My decision to bow out was arrived at over quite some time and had nothing to do with some of the oft-listed reasons for quitting. I don’t think Facebook is evil, I wasn’t addicted to the service, I wasn’t worried about privacy and didn’t have any acute “bad” experiences on Facebook. And though I agree with a lot of the technical bitching about Facebook (site changes, annoying sharing and games, ads, etc.), that played no role in the decision. The reason I left: the benefits were outweighed by an unexpected mental tax created by following a bunch of people.

First, the good. Facebook was an excellent way to keep tabs on people. Our nearest relatives live over 1000 miles away, and much of the family is on the other side of Earth. Former colleagues are similarly dispersed. For staying ostensibly connected to these people, Facebook was great. Another useful feature was photo sharing. I’m a long-time Flickr user, but sharing non-public photos was most easily done on Facebook. I do miss these things. People have moved to Facebook and abandoned their old blogs and photo sites. Being off of Facebook has meant that I’ve had roughly no idea what has gone on with most of my family and colleagues for the better part of the year. All of the weddings, breakups, kid and vacation photos, amazing and funny accomplishments in 2012… I know not of them if my wife hasn’t mentioned it. (I do know of some job changes simply because of LinkedIn.) Likewise, people have had few updates about me or our family. We’re largely off the radar, except for those things that get passed along second-hand. Sounds bleak, and it is. Make no mistake about opting out of the Book: if your social network is anything like mine, you will have little idea what is going on with anyone, and they will lose all track of you.

So why the hell would I incur this cost? Well it shouldn’t be a surprise that all of the amazing connectedness that Facebook allows comes at a cost. But while the benefits are readily apparent, the costs sneak up over many months/years, and probably affect people very differently. The elements that caused problems for me:

  • Everyone projects a curated Facebook image.
  • For most of the people I follow, Facebook information is the only thing I regularly hear about them. The perception formed by reading Facebook becomes the reality.
  • Being exposed to real-time, semi-private details of many people at distance is abnormal and certainly not something I’m used to.

For me, this created stress. Reading Facebook was not like skimming the news. I didn’t just absorb a bunch of facts that I was curious in. Because I knew the subjects (people) well, I related to them. I’d be irritated with what I thought were poor decision by people I knew. When exciting, fortuitous things happened, I’ll admit that I was sometimes envious. Even a mundane post by someone might prompt me to spend time thinking of something pointless. (A prefect example would be time wasted contemplating some cute comment or rebuttal to an provocative post only to decide, “why bother?”, and moving on). I didn’t choose this mental response, it just happened. I didn’t hang out for hours on Facebook and didn’t get hooked on monitoring the goings-on of people, yet the constant feed managed to subtly eat at me. When I noticed that I’d get the a bit more tense while reading Facebook, I knew it was time to call it quits

Is my case particularly extreme? Was I overly sensitive to others’ lives and should I have been able to detach from all that and just use the utility of Facebook? Perhaps, but I highly doubt that most people can be exposed to their family and friend’s lives in great detail without some sort of empathy or reflection. This is obviously true of those “addicted” Facebook users. For me it a was just a bit stressful. I can hear Col. Jessup berating me: You can’t handle the Timeline (née Wall)!!! So be it.

Being outside of Facebook has its pros and cons. For a lot of people I think things balance out in Facebook’s favor. If you’re happy with the service, that’s great. If you think you want to quit, however, realize that the adrenaline rush a few minutes after deleting it all may be replaced with some regret later. But you’ll also start to appreciate the peace that comes from not knowing what is going on. You’ll rediscover email, phone calls, and maybe blogs. You might worry a bit less.

It’s a real paradox of choice. 20 years ago you couldn’t have this hyper-connectivity even if you wanted it, yet today you may struggle to with the choice to eschew the magic of Facebook. So it goes. I picked a path nine months ago that I’m sticking with.

Good luck, and have a great 2013!

DIY Project 1: Understairway storage

It’s summer 2012, I decided that it was time for the old bar under the staircase to go.  Yes, there is a bar with a sink and all under the staircase… I supposed it was an 80s thing.  $70 dollars for it to be removed (sink cabinets and etc).  Time to test my carpentry skills.  What                         could go wrong?  Famous last words 😉

Did you know that all sides of the walls and the floor can be not level and in a different direction?…  Shims to the rescue!.

3 weekends in,.. i got partial of the frame going.  Calling it a night,  to be continued….  later…

 

PMP – Done – Checked

Late last year, I got the fine idea that during my maternity leave,  I was going to have time in my hands to prepare for my PMP (Project Management Professional) certification.  Yes… I know how ridiculous that sounds like now, no words can really describe the degree of “clueless”.  My only excuse is that it was my first pregnancy.   I thought if I normally work an average of 10 to 11 hour days,  not working with a baby seems like easy street!.  Again, “Yes” clueless.

So after Ben was born, and my maternity leave had expired, not a page from the PMBOK was ruffled.   Safe to say I was completely out of my league when it comes to juggling baby and lack of sleep.  The line “PMP Certication” did not enter my mind once in 3 months.  My PMP certification time limit was starting to countdown, there is only 1 year limit before you have to completely reapply and go through the process again.  Soon I realize that if I did not start preparing in earnest,  I might as well just quit the certification.  So I put myself down to the task,  starting in May one hour each night after Ben goes to sleep and half days over the weekend.  Skipped 1 family trip that I wished I had taken however it was just too risky and skipped a whole lot of gardening this summer.  Hubby helped out around the house more than usual so that I’ll have time to study on PMP.

July 9,  2012:  Drove myself to Prometric test center at 8am.  Sat down and started the exam.  I completed the exam in about 3 hours and 40 minutes.  Started doing  some review but did not complete and ran out of time.

Result:

I Passed :-). Proficient in all categories except for one.  WHOPPEEEEEEE!!!! Done!  Whewwwh…  what a relief!

Now to put the knowledge to practice in my day to day activities……  that should be easy right? Right…  😉

 

Taking leave

I just completed my first week as Mr. Mom!  Grade: B-

Some background: Our son Ben was born three months ago, and since then Angela has been home with him and we’ve had a few family members come to help for a while. It has been going fine, but the plan all along has been for Angela to return to work and Ben to enter daycare. But we didn’t want to put him in at three months, so the idea of paternity leave entered the picture.

My idea of paternity leave came from growing up in late 20th century midwestern USA. Here’s how it works: dad takes off 1-2 weeks after the baby is born and then goes back to work. That’s it. That’s what people do.  I mention this because even digesting the concept of an extended paternal leave was a bit tough to get my head around.  My friends outside the US are probably shaking their heads in frustration by now.  You’ve maybe heard how residents of other countries get more vacation time than those in the US, well the comparison of parental leave (especially paid) is even more imbalanced.

Only four countries have no national law mandating paid time off for new parents: Liberia, Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, and the United States.

OK, woe is me that I’m not from somewhere that would grant me a huge paid break.  I am, however, entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid leave thanks to FMLA.  All dads have had this right since 1993, but I honestly can’t remember any of my male colleagues taking an extended leave following the birth of a child.  (By “extended” I mean more than the perfunctory 1-2 weeks.)  It could be money, but it’s probably culture. The idea of doing so doesn’t even cross their minds since they don’t see anyone else doing it.  Even in some of the most leave-generous countries, dads are not taking much of the leave they’re entitled to.  Choosing to take leave may be a more difficult decision than one would think.

Angela and I discussed this early on, and I talked openly with my employer about it too, so they could plan accordingly.  I will be taking off at least the month of January to watch Ben, and I just completed the first week.  My initial impressions of full-time, all-day care without a live-in support crew:

  • Completely out of my comfort zone
  • Very time consuming (let go of the idea of getting “other” stuff done)
  • Frustrating at times
  • Often delightful

Though I may be all thumbs with certain baby things, and Ben doesn’t like the change and is protesting in various ways, even after a week I can say the experience is highly rewarding and shouldn’t be missed.  Ben has already picked up on the change in routine and we relate to each other a bit differently than at the start of the week.  I’m definitely looking forward to the upcoming weeks.

I recently listened to David Brooks discuss the many thousands of letters he’s received from seniors recounting their lives, life lessons learned, what they’d have done differently. One of the top themes was from men who regretted not spending enough time with their families. Though the nature of one’s job (e.g. travel, late meetings) may be a dominant factor, I believe not spending some time with children during their first months is significant too.

Dads in the US have the right to take time off.  I think more of them would do so if they’d only consider it.

Back to the Blog

In 2005, just before relocating to New Zealand, we started a blog.  It was the thing to do back then and everyone had a blog.  You did too, probably.  For the next couple of years we chronicled the exciting overseas adventure in reasonable detail and happened upon the occasional entertaining comment thread with interested readers.

In 2007, having completed our OE and returned to Peoria, the old NZ blog was decommissioned and a less active blog of Peoria goings-on was set up.  Though it wasn’t filled with photos and tales from a far away land, it provided a log of what we were up to as well as a platform for the occasional op-ed piece.  Even mundane things can be fun to describe.

In 2010 we quit our jobs at CAT and moved to Oregon. This was not to be just the next in an unending series of relocations, but rather, according to our plans, the final landing zone. We’d visited Oregon 10 years ago and had always wanted to live here.

With new jobs, a new adventure in a beautiful and interesting state, surely there would be a healthy series of posts by now, right?  Nope.  One post.  What happened? Facebook happened.  In 2009, we got sucked into the Facebook machine due to its novelty.  (All these old friends… amazing!  I didn’t realize she even knew what a computer was yet she’s on Facebook… exciting!)  And over the past 2 years, as we actually started posting on Facebook, the blog died.  Why bother?  Everyone is on Facebook, it’s easy to post something simple since there isn’t the commitment to write very much, and you’d get all those Likes and “I KNOW!!!!” comments to stroke your ego.

But abandoning the blog was a mistake.  Being a consumer and producer on Facebook is fun and perfectly fine, but I’ve come to realize that what you’re left with at the end of your efforts is:  nothing.  Facebook is merely a stock ticker for life.  It’s random data points from your “social network”.  It’s also a lot of noise, commercials, and time wasting activities.  But most importantly, it has not been the durable diary that our blogs were.  It’s a joke to compare previous blog posts to my timeline on Facebook.  And of course, 95% of the blame goes to me.  Facebook has just been an enabler for lazy behavior.

So I’m here to declare a return to blogging.  I make no promises of frequency, but I suspect I’ll do better than one post in 18 months.  I hope it will be quite a bit better.  The prospect of moving beyond quips and jokes on Facebook to longer more thoughtful contributions on a blog is quite appealing.  I hope it’s interesting to readers too, but it doesn’t matter.  I can derive a lot of pleasure by rereading our old blogs, whereas I get zero pleasure looking at my Facebook timeline.  I hope to continue the former.

(Note: in most cases “I” means “we”.  Angela and I are of similar opinion on this and she’s keen to get back to blogging too.)

(Content note: in this iteration of the blog, there may be some technical articles.  I mean really technical that will appeal to almost no one. Ignore them. I’ve considered many times the idea of creating a tech blog, but I don’t want to deal with the overhead and don’t really have enough material for one.  So instead they will stick out like a sore thumb on our personal blog.)

 

Chocolate Butter Cake with Brandy?

Part 1: 9:27am  After searching high and low for the ideal Chocolate Butter cake recipe, I’ve decided to settle on this one http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/chocolate-butter-cake.   It has all the ingredients that I think will make a wonderful tasty chocolate cake.  If it turns out well, I’ll give a loaf to my neighbor for Christmas.

Part 2:  2:39pm  Well, the recipe makes two loaf of 8″x3.75″ pan.  It is now in the fridge to cool.  Can’t wait to try.  Now for the next part, i am going to look for a ganache recipe to frost the cake. Yum!

Ganache recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/saras-secrets/master-ganache-recipe/index.html

Part 3: 7:05pm

 Well, I think the cake itself is just okay.  There is something missing.. I just can’t put a finger to it.  It’s supposed to be chocolate butter cake but it does not taste very buttery nor does it taste of brandy.  I would say the recipe is about 3.5 stars.  The ganache on the other hand was excellent.  I think I have Ghiradelli to thank.  All the same i’m sure we have no problems finishing of this cake for Christmas..  to bad Ben is still to little to have any.

 

Beginnings of a new adventure

At last, we are in Salem, Oregon. It took each of us 4 days and 3 nights to drive from Peoria to Salem.   It was a nice long (very long) drive that served the purpose of “stress decompression”.  The drive was along I-80 about 3/4 of the way and then I-84,  nothing difficult about it especially with the assistance of GPS navigating the overnight stops.  I tried to take pictures with my cell phone which I posted on pd.kalafut.net, the pictures did not do the drive justice at all.  I don’t think there is a better way of seeing the country other than driving through it.  There are no words to describe the drive through Wyoming and along the Columbia River in Oregon, it was just simply beautiful.

The day I reached Salem was Saturday, May 8th.  There wasn’t a cloud in the sky.  It was lovely blue skies with a temperature around 78F.  That must be good omen for a city that is cloudy most days of the year.   Jim was already waiting in front of the apartment as I was driving into McNary Heights.  We left some really good friends behind in Peoria,  but we are ready to start anew in Salem Oregon.  So here we go…..   Adventure in the Northwest for the Kalafut’s.