Century Plant Update

So much for my promise of photographing it every day.....but I suppose this is a little more dramatic. We went out last night and we both swore when we came home a few hours later that it had grown 6" since. In the wee hours it also rained so G-D only knows what it's going to do now. As you can see it is quite a bit taller in the 7 days since the last shot. I tried to take the picture from the exact same spot.

The Century Plant is at it Again!

Our black tipped agave is at it again. Another one of the plants is flowering. This is quite an amazing process as it grows by leaps every day. I usually measure it in feet, not inches. So I'm going to catalog this one as well and take a picture of it every day or two from the exact same spot and see how big it gets. I think I tried this last time but had to move back after it got too high. We shall see.

Ballona Wetlands and Earth Day 2011

I've never particpated in Earth Day before but this year I came up with a challenge idea for our wellness program at work that was to do clean up at the Ballona Wetlands. For those of you who don't know the Ballona Wetlands are the last 100 acres of wetlands in the greater Los Angeles area. They are located here. Click on any picture to make it larger.

They are currently in a legal battle to save it from the Playa Vista 2 development project which includes a shopping center and 2,600 homes. More concrete, less greenspace, more traffic, just what Los Angeles needs.

We started with a brief talk on conservation, recycling, history of the wetlands and the importance of it continuing to exist. It was quite interesting and we were reminded of the Katrina disaster and how preserving the wetlands in Louisiana could have saved them. Wetlands absorbs incoming sea water from tides and out going flood waters. They act like a sponge and clean the water passing through them. Wetlands are also an important bird and animal habitat.

After our chat we continued to our work site, for us this involved removing Acacia trees, an invasive non-native plant species from Africa. Very hard work pushing a wheelbarrow through sand and lopping off and hand sawing branches. But well worth it.

A few Grand Canyon Pictures

The elk were so close I had to use a wide angle lens and they just walked down the path like we weren't there, so we moved or else. These are all mom's pictures. Yes, we are literally sitting on the edge. It took a lot to get mom out there. It was a big rock...lots of room. Click each picture to make them bigger.

Road Trip Day 3 - Eastern side of the park

Today we drove east on desert view road with our first stop at the Watchtower - a 70' tower built out of stone under the watchful eye of Mary Colter. The tower is pretty cool and mimics towers found throughout the southwest thought to be used for defense and food storage. This one was just a convenient stop for Grand Canyon visitors in 1932. After our climb to the top (7,522 feet above sea level) and some serious gift shop shopping we drove back west.

As we made our way the 25 miles back to the village center we stopped along the way visiting an Indian museum, some ruins, and numerous viewpoints. You certainly would never get tired of looking at the Grand Canyon in my opinion whatever the view.

We hurried up, ate lunch and ran off to our 2:00 pm ranger nature hike. We walked with the ranger for about 3/4 of a mile and then went off for another mile or two with the canyon in view all the time. What a way to hike.

Dinner? Off to the El Tovar lodge for a swanky meal. Mom and were fortunate enough by luck I suppose to get a table overlooking the rim. WOW!




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The canyon

View from the restaurant

Note the canyon in the background

Road Trip Day 2 - continued

After checking in to our room we had 15 minutes of downtime before it was off to catch the shuttle bus for Hopi Point. This is the most popular place to view the sunset. I figured, why not go to the most popular spot even though I hate crowds. on the way west we were compelled to jump off before our stop to view a herd of elk. They were just off the road, about nine of them, all females. As we moved toward this viewpoint we discovered two right in the trees beside us, so close that I had to use a wide angle to get one in. Beautiful animals.

Back on the shuttle and on to Hopi point. Mom and I supped on a rock 2' from the rim with the expanse of the canyon and the cathedrals of the mountains as a view. After supper we staked out our camera spots and waited for an hour and a half. Those of you that know me know that I am not a patient person but with scenery like this the time flew.

We were not disappointed, ten minutes before sunset the colors changed all through the canyon to pinks, oranges and shadows. It was awesome and frankly words cannot describe it. Shortly it became too dark to shoot the canyon without a tripod so we turned to the actual sunset. With the poofy clouds in front of the sun and the rays shining through it was magnificent.

Sunset over we took our frozen bodies (it was sooooo cold!) and headed into the village for a ranger talk on ravens. There are a lot of ravens here and the ranger told stories of how intelligent they are and how well they adapt, unlike the condor which is having trouble adapting and will probably always need protection.

Another incredible day!


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Location:Sunset

Road Trip - Day 2 - THE Grand Canyon

Mom and I left Kingman this morning and drove a short three hours to the south rim grand canyon national park. We promptly got a little lost in the park and ended up at Mather Point at the rim. WOW! It makes the west canyon look puny. The vastness of it is mind boggling. We still haven't seen the Colorado river from here yet because we haven't gone to the right view point.

We are currently in the Yavapai cafeteria waiting for our room to be ready. 20 minutes. We have an ambitious evening planned with grabbing a to go sandwich and taking a shuttle then hiking to the furthest vista point for the sunset. We're both a little tired already of the hoards of asian tourists, so a little solitude would be welcome.

Someone told me last week that one day in the park is plenty. I cannot fathom that. There is so much to do and so many things to see. I suppose if you are of the mind that if you've seen one canyon you've seen it all....I am not. More later.

Location:South rim

Day 1 on our road trip

Today was an amazing day. Starting early we drove across the great state of California through the high desert and the lava fields crossing into Arizona. Then we headed north to the western rim of the grand canyon. The skywalk is not an easy place to get to - one lane highways and then 21 miles of dirt, washboard roads. As we hit the dirt the landscape really changed with forests of Joshua trees and free range cattle accompanying us through the dust.

As we turned each corner huge mesas and large snow covered mountains greeted us. Finally that final turn and mom and I both gasped. There it was - words cannot describe the vastness of the expanse of canyons before us. We were still too far away to see the edge and bottom but our excitement was palpable.

After the formalities we boarded our bus for the skywalk. There are no rails or ropes at the edge so you can get as close as you dare. Mom kept freaking out that I was too close. We took lots of pictures and oohed and awed at the vastness and the 4000' sheer drop. I could sit on the edge and gaze forever.

Our time came for the skywalk - we donned our protective booties and ventured out onto the glass. We loved it. We just couldn't look down and walk at the same time, it made both of us queezy but we could stand still and look down. At one point we walked from the end back out as the cliff dropped away and you feel a whoosh as your subconscious freaks out that you are falling. What a great time.

Then it was off to Eagle point for a little hike, some rock climbing and more pictures. What a day!


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Location:Western Arizona

Day 8

I open the door and there you are, gazing back at me with the same longing I have. Slowly I wrap my hand around you and feel your icy cold body. It shocks me but invigorates me just the same. I nestle my thumb under your tab and firmly yet gently pop your top. The snap, rip, pop is such a distinct sound I smile. Then I feel it, those little bubbles tickling my wrist. As I lift you to my mouth I feel such a rush of anticipation. You hit my tongue and I close my eyes in Ecstasy.
I gulp you in, your bubbles almost burning my mouth. Ahhhh, sweet heaven.

I quit caffeinated soda pop on Monday March 7th - today is day 8

Pacioretty and Chara - March 8th, 2011 Hit

It's not often that I write to an organization and complain about something someone said, did or what have you. It has to be pretty heinous for it raise that kind of ire in me especially in today's violence numbed society but this one really pissed me off. So much so that I wrote Sportsnet about it. On March 8th in Montreal there was a violent hit on one of the players (Pacioretty) by a Boston defenseman (Chara). Chara basically rammed Pacioretty into the glass partition otherwise known as the turnbuckle. His neck is broken.

I am appalled at Spector's comments regarding the March 8th hit on the Hab's player, see below. I bet Mark believes that a woman asks to be raped too. This is just the kind of Neanderthal behavior that turns women off to Sportsnet.

Below is the excerpt from Spector's commentary:

Mark Spector of Sportsnet wrote about the hazards of that part of the rink … but felt it was Pacioretty that shared the personal responsibility for being there:

In Pacioretty's case, the smaller Canadiens forward had a running grudge going with Chara. He knew it was there, after opening the feud with an ill-advised shove after his overtime winner by Montreal on Jan. 8. Pacioretty never backed down from Chara, yapping and sparring with the giant Bruins d-man over the course of the next two games.

Now Pacioretty is coming down the wing. The score is 4-0 Montreal, with seconds left in Period 2. He knows Chara wants to crank him. He can see the partition coming.

Pacioretty had every reason to believe he was entering a very dangerous spot, yet he went in there like a defenceman turning his back to the ice, counting on the rulebook to protect him.

Give me a fucking break. You cannot tell me that this 22 year old young gun of Montreal's thought that by squeezing by Chara on the boards when the puck was no where near him that he was taking his livelihood and possibly his life in his own hands. He'll be lucky if he ever gets on skates again. Spector, you are the biggest arse in Canada, bar none.

Where I originally read Spector's comments --> here

If you feel that you are offended, here is Sportnet's phone # --> 888-451-6363

Here is where you can email them --> here

Here's Chara's apology....if you can call it that.

10 Reasons for Not Being in Information Technology

Some of this was shamelessly stolen from a TechRepublic Blog with my own twist but it is nonetheless poignant.


1: Stress

It is very stressful job. No one calls you to tell you everything is wonderful, they only call you when something doesn't work and usually it's an emergency (perceived or real). The farther up the food chain in IT you go the more critical and huge the emergency is. Also adding to the stress is solving your friends/relatives/neighbors computer issues. If you recommend, fix, or even touch any of their computer/audio/video items then you are forever 100% responsible for them.


2: Hours

If you want a Monday through Friday, 9-to-5 job, look elsewhere — IT is a job you carry around with you 24/7. Again, the farther up the food chain you go the more this becomes a reality. One doesn't do major upgrades during the day, forget that, they are only done at night when no one else needs the network. And the people who aren’t your clients or users (friends and family, for example) will want to take advantage of your knowledge and keep their computers running smoothly for free, when you get home at night. Also, you must keep abreast of all the latest technology so you can keep your job and your friends happy - read and study at night, in your spare time.

3: Getting paid

If you are an independent contractor, one of the most stressful issues you face is getting paid. I can’t tell you how many consultants I know who have had to make threats or use an attorney to get paid. And when you’re freelancing, if they don’t pay you, you don’t eat. If you're not independant you always feel you're underpaid because of item 2.


4: People
(in general)This one I hate to mention. That is not to say that people, in general, are bad. It’s just that when you have your IT hat on, people seem to look at you in a different light. You are both savior and sinner in one stressed-out package.

5: The chain of command
Let’s face it. Not many higher-ups understand your job. They think you should be able to get everything done on a shoestring budget, with no help, and you should treat end users as if they were better humans than yourself. And to make matters worse, the higher-ups want you to magically make those PCs last for more than a decade. This misunderstanding of both duty and technology does one thing: It makes your job impossible. Not all companies are created equal of course, my current one actually is not like this at all. The one before that was the epitome of it.

6: Technology
Have you ever had those days when it seems like the the technology GODs hate you? I have those days more often than not. There are the occasional days when you are the winner but especially in the Windows and Microsoft world the losers far outweigh the the winning days. There are days when even an entire bottle of wine cannot erase the pain of having a piece of silicon, sodder and plastic beat you.

7: Competition
One thing you can count on — there will always be someone better than you, especially in the IT industry and especially if you are one of the few women. The longer you remain in IT the more it becomes apparent that it's a young person's game. Being mentally and physically agile to work long hours, keep sharp, take classes on weekends, read technical manuals, keep abreast of everything new, renew your certifications is exhausting. Not that us older people can't hang as frankly, experience accounts for a lot, but we tend to have a different take on life, like family, downtime, relaxing..... You know, having a life. Another thing is the constant oneupmanship. IT people, especially men, just need to be right. After awhile I just get tired of putting them in their place and showing them they aren't - I am..... Yes - competition, it is as fierce in IT as it is in basketball and the egos are about as big.

8: The cloud
Every time I get an email about some cloud seminar or read an article about how putting software, hardware, data and everything else into the cloud is the way to go and the demise of the American IT worker I just want to scream. Part of me is wondering what I'm missing and what I don't know, part of me is wondering if I should be in the cloud and if the cloud is safe and the other part of me is laughing as it's all in the bloody cloud already. I'd like to pound the marketing idiot who dreamed up the catch phrase "the cloud". From techrepublic, "Clients and end users want the cloud to be some magical experience that will make all their work easier, better, and faster. If only they knew the truth."

9: Lack of standards
There are none, let's face it. We have the IETF, the IEEE, the RFC's, the OSI model, the ISO standards and on and on it goes. But still - their are mountains of proprietary hardware/software vendors that want to keep their product closed up and non-compliant, otherwise, how would they differentiate themselves and make money? This means that I need to know way too much information.....and run in to compatibility issues at every turn.

10: Respect
The general public has a bad taste in its mouth for IT professionals. Why? Many reasons, consumers have been burned by the Geek Squad, home users cannot figure out why they have to pay for Microsoft Office every couple years, call centers in India, you name it, IT companies who don't deliver on promises or companies that think they were promised one thing and got something different.... Oh sure, when you walk in the door you are their best friend but the moment their issues is resolved and they get the bill they wonder why it costs so much. Jeesh, I don't know - it if was easy then why didn't you do it? And why is it my fault that you should buy a new computer every couple years? And why is it my fault that your five year old computer is running slow?

Farmville on the Bleeding Edge?

Have you ever played Farmville on Facebook? Or Frontierville? Or Mafia Wars? These type of games require the game hoster to capture and relate everyone's actions in the game to each others.

This produces a database approaching a petabyte in size. How much is a petabyte? One petabyte is equal to 13.3 years of Hi Def video or 20 million 4 drawer file cabinets filled with single spaced pieces of paper. One petabyte = 1000 terabytes. Basically, more than you can imagine.

Some background on Zynga, the creator of Farmville, Mafia Wars and a few other very successful facebook games. Zynga hosts 250 million active visitors a month to it's games. How in the world does Zynga make money you ask? Well, let's take Farmville for example. There are about 31 million players a day on Farmville. Zynga sells in game coins - these coins allow players to differentiate their farms from the masses with special items, flamingo-shaped topiaries are especially popular. These coins are sold either direcly online through the game (just give me your visa card or Paypal account), or via game cards (available all over including even grocery stores). 7-11 even had a promotion for awhile on their slurpee cups. Redeem the sticker on the cup for special items. You can imagine how much revenue Zynga made just from the royalties on the cup!

I know - you're asking yourself, seriously, do people really pay for in game virtual items? Yes, they do. This has been going on for years now. I remember paying about $20 on ebay for a set of very cool virtual armor for a good friends birthday for her to use in the online role playing game, Asheron's Call. Back to Farmville - let's say that Zynga manages to get a penny a day from those 31 million people. 3.65 x 31 million people = $113 million a year. That's a lot of revenue. Multiply that by the number of games they have and they are making some cash.

These games are using some very state of the art technology for managing all that data. Farmville uses a new data management system based on open source called CouchOne. Stupid name..... So yes, Zynga and other game makers have overhead. Servers, datacenter costs, maintenance, large Internet pipe charges, and a team of designers to keep their cash cows (pun intended) interested in the game by constantly updating the game with new challenges, items, and what have you.

Solar Update

It's weird I know, but I like going into my backyard and watching my electric meter run backwards. I get such satisfaction out of it. We have yet to figure out if our electric bill has gone down because the DWP (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power) didn't officially put the meter on the grid until early January and they bill in 2 month increments so my satisfaction could be misplaced. You'll note that I was feeding electricity back in to DWP's grid and they were getting it for free.... Here is a picture of our energy production for the month of February. Keep in mind, February is a short month and it rained quite a bit during that time. Interesting to note that even while cloudy we are generating electricity.

Anatomy of Today's Job Market

Dena started work this past Tuesday for the first time in 18 months. Thankfully, due to the Obama and democratic moves to extend COBRA supplemental coverage (health care for the unemployed) and extend unemployment benefits for 99 weeks we managed to survive this relatively unscathed. Don't get me wrong. It wasn't without hardship, adjustments and anxiety but we didn't lose our house, or our car and the only thing we gained was a stronger relationship.

How did she get this new job? Dena applied for jobs every day. She would sit on the computer and search, sometimes even applying for jobs that pop up Friday nights and Saturday mornings. Not sure who posts jobs then but ? At one point she even applied for a Starbucks store manager. She was over qualified and probably too old, but of course, they cannot say that.

Finally in January of 2011 something happened. Not sure if the economy is really starting to turn the corner or if all the planets started to align but really good, interesting jobs in her field started to pop up on a daily basis. She applied and actually got calls back. In the previous 17 months she had a total of 3 interviews. In the first two weeks of January she had had ten. At the beginning of February she was past the first interview stage of three good looking jobs. For those of you who haven't had to hunt lately, the first stage is a phone interview. I suppose you could say the first stage is actually getting an email or phone call acknowledging that you exist, but I digress.

She then proceeded over the next three weeks to move through interviews two, three and four. These were all face to face. Only the final contestant went to interview four. The first two ended at interview three and haven't been heard from since. Both of those interviews had great vibes and no reason not to get an offer or some kind of courtesy call. I think it's unprofessional but it's not uncommon.

On January 22nd she started with contestant number three. We couldn't be happier.

The Beauty of Living in Los Angeles

5am - KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK POUND POUND POUND
more knocking, more pounding on our front door.
We run to the front door, Dena is looking out the curtain screaming, what is it? What is it?
She thought our house was on fire, again.
Our neighbor Joe is standing outside saying that someone has broken into my truck. He's spotted the guy and spews out a license plate number. I dash into the kitchen for a piece of paper while Joe continues to spew the license plate #
5:10 am - call 911, give dispatcher plate #
5:11 am - dispatcher calls back, that plate # is a neighbor
5:12 am - another moment of panic.....
5:20 am - one cop car arrives As I proceed to be interviewed, a report taken, Joe is interviewed, another report taken
5:35 am - 3 more cop cars arrive
5:45 am - 6 cops walk across the street and bang on another neighbors door. The owner of the reported plate. Sleepy, frightened neighbor walks out of house to 4 cop cars with flashing lights.
Here's the full story - Joe hears breaking glass. Peers out his window and sees a 6' black guy grabbing stuff out of my truck and then using a flashlight to look into other vehicles on the street. Joe comes out of house and yells. Guy drives away in silver Honda Accord with the lights off.
Why did the cops bang on the other neighbor's door? It turns out that the bad guy switched plates from his stolen Honda to this neighbors Honda.He actually had the time to take the plates off the stolen car, unscrew the neighbors plates, screw on the stolen plates and then rob me.
Then the pounding started....and you're up to date. The guy got my tool bag, about $2,000 worth of tools.

6:30 am - Another neighbor comes out of her house to drive her kid to school and is met by a cop car in her driveway.
6:35 am - finally the cops drive away, after I've given my solar panel spiel, lent them a screwdriver and got my report #.

Unbelievable.

Duct Tape Man

At least I think it's a guy....not too sure. This guy was walking back and forth down the street while I was pumping gas. As you can see he's taped all of his pant rips with duct tape and he's made himself shoe soles out of duct tape as well. It is a phenomenally versatile tape isn't it. He made a dragging kind of sound not unlike a zombie. I've been watching a lot of undead shows lately. Of course, this is quite sad, I'm sure the guy is not quite all there but it was quite a sight none the less.

Our First Sushi Class

Castle

Do you watch that ABC show Castle? I really like it as it's witty and there is good chemistry between Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic). Kind of funny that both these actors are Canadians....We are taking over North America, one TV show at a time. They do a tremendous amount of filming on our little dead end section of Hope Street in downtown Los Angeles. So much so that there are probably fewer days of no filming than there are the opposite. Sometimes it's very irritating and sometimes it's fascinating. This was one of those fascinating days. Here are pictures of Beckett consulting with the director on a scene and of Castle shooting the breeze with some crew as obviously he is not in the scene.

Remember to click on any picture to enlarge it.