12/31/15 (06:59)
  • bad year for usc.
  • should be interesting to see if cal is any good next year without goff and to see how well he does at the next level.
  • ended the year above our earnings goal a little bit.
  • we've done a couple inspections on the house now and found that all of the decks need replacing and there's been some termite activity. two of the decks are pretty small. one of the decks is cantilevered off the back of the house and is big and on the second level so it'll be tough to replace. expensive, too, since it's so large. that said, we knew that would need a lot of work or possibly replacement so none of this is really surprising. we lowered our price since we now are the only bidders and have some written justification for a lower than market value offer. i think it's in the hands of the bank now since it's a short sale.
  • been fighting the weather lately since i have a couple painting projects and it's been below 50 degrees and wet outside.
  • did xmas with my mom the other day. xmas with meryl's parents is sunday.
  • merritt smiles as much as any baby i've ever seen. i'm glad our kids are so happy.
  • not much to say. just keep working and chugging along. can't wait until the kids can take care of themselves or help out around the house or watch movies in the theater or do things like that. they're both still such little kids that it's tough. zoe is very helpful in spurts, but she doesn't like loud noises so hanging out in the garage usually consists of me cleaning and sorting things instead of doing actual work. she's really good at cleaning up and handing me things, though. she wants to be helpful and i always want to give her things to do so hopefully that dynamic continues and she can help out on jobs. merritt's still too young to expect anything from her.
  • didn't really take a vacation this year even though i fully intended to do so. driving with the kids is pretty hellish, though, they both got the hang of it after a couple days. we bought a little dvd player for zoe on road trips and that occupied her pretty well, but she was still bent out of shape about not being in a familiar place. merritt doesn't like the car, but was okay sleeping in the travel playpen/crib type thing we got from someone else.
  • maybe next year we'll get away. if we get the house, though...less money, less free time. not sure how that's possible.
  • i think we're probably in the upper quintile for time utilization. some people do a lot of hanging out and sitting around. i think we do a lot of work and get a lot done. it's amazing how much there is to get done from cooking and cleaning to maintaining technology, working, etc. it just seems like there's always something on the to do list. the bottom quintile of time utilizers seem to do a lot of hanging out and barely making it to work. they pay their bills, work (some of them, some of the time), and...i'm not sure. i'm in a lot of homes and it seems that some people don't do much during the day. i have a vision of being like that again (i did that in college and right after college), but i don't know that it will actually happen. it would be nice to have nothing to do on a given day. maybe watch a couple movies, grab a bite to eat at the local diner. one can dream.


    • 12/19/15 (12:38)

  • been an interesting week in the family.
  • went down to la and sd so max could see the baby for the first time. also visited my dad. then saw brother in law's new daughter. meryl was sick in the stomach most of the time. then we got home after a tough trip (kids traveled well after they got used to it, but it was bad at first) and i got sick. threw up twice. first time i've thrown up in 19 years. last time was after running a mile in a personal best (at the time) of 5:07. beverly hills high. pancakes for breakfast. i had a good run. then zoe threw up this week a few times. and merritt threw up twice this morning. the toilets and washing machine have gotten a good workout around here. i missed a day of work which is all i could afford to miss. meryl is pulling her hair out. fun times.
  • our offer on the house is still going through the process. since it's a short sale this is par for the course. still haven't seen one of the bedrooms and a bathroom so that's kinda funny. monday we should be able to see everything and i plan on giving it a good once over. also paying for an engineer to take a look; this will be the only inspection that we pay for.
  • business is picking up again. actually got a bunch of inquiries while on our way to la so there's no such thing as not working.
  • bowl season starting. might be able to watch a couple of them.


    • 12/16/15 (16:34)

  • kinda funny that conservatives are all about market forces and money as a motivator, but when it comes to public education their retort is often that throwing more money at the problem isn't going to fix it. why, if money is a great motivator, wouldn't putting more money into teacher salaries incentivize better people to become teachers?
  • amazing.


    • 12/09/15 (14:31)

  • got a new computer, it runs windows 10 so that's a learning curve. not too bad so far. somehow i'm still able to use netscape composer for this page. i'm just waiting for the day that i have to either move forward to a new program or backwards to html on notepad.
  • still use ws ftp 95, too.
  • business is still slow. if it's like this at the beginning of the year then i'll be worried.


    • 12/05/15

  • business has been slowing down this month a bit. i think the holidays just aren't as much a time to get stuff done around the house.
  • found another house that we're interested in. this is the third one we've made an offer on in the last 18 months. nice plot of land, livable place that needs a good deal of work, garage is about 40 sq. ft. bigger than what i have now, in a good area...only downside is the agent doesn't know what he's doing and it's probably a short sale (though they want to avoid that). unlike the other two, this is going to be a long wait before we find anything out. all sorts of hoops to jump through and paperwork that needs to be filed before it becomes a short sale and then the bank needs to decide how much of a hit they want to take, etc. i don't mind waiting to get in, but i don't like not knowing if we'll get it or not.
  • packers game the other night was crazy. watched a bit and i think the lions got screwed on that last penalty call. packers haven't looked good since their 6-0 start.
  • usc/stanford game is today. usc should have a good chance despite the ranking differential. for usc it comes down to whether or not their defense shows up. they'll just take entire games off and not be in it at all. with other teams, though, they match up well and look halfway decent.
  • another mass shooting happened the other day. this one was in san bernadino. last time the media got this worked up it was about the paris shootings and one of those occurred at an eagles of death metal concert. eagles of death metal have a song about san bernadino. this is clearly a conspiracy. look it up, people. time to wake up. agenda 21, illuminati, bilderbergs, 9/11 was an inside job, jewish bankers, mk ultra, false flag, H.A.R.P., new world order, etc.

    • anyway, this is just a way of life now. limiting guns at this point isn't going to do much in my opinion...the cat's out of the bag. it seems that there is some bipartisan support of mental health reform and that would be great. the media feeding the celebrity aspect of it doesn't help. but beyond a few things on the margins, i just don't think there's much that can reasonably be done to prevent this stuff from happening. we have a lot of people here, we have just as many guns, people can easily find out how to make bombs (can't put that genie back in the bottle either), and some sick people want to be famous or feel powerful or just hurt others. i honestly think it's the cost of doing business at this point.

    11/23/15 (22:31)

  • continued the tradition of seeing usc play on the road vs. a pac-12 opponent. this year was oregon. so far i think we've seen them win like two times. they lost to asu, ut, ore...can't remember if they beat az. game was bad and i don't really like oregon fans. trip was good though. brought my uncle along this time.
  • ipod took another crap so i'm restoring it now. ipod classic isn't made anymore so i'm probably going to have to get a player with much less capacity and that stinks. i could get one that streams or whatever, but then i'm using bandwidth and i don't have unlimited data so that would just mean more money. everything is more money. supposedly the best company in the world and they don't even make a machine that lasts 5 years. it's embarassing. at least it would be if anyone had any standards in the tech sphere. to them, though, if something lasts 3 years then you're doing great. initial quality is all that matters. apple isn't alone in this, btw.


    • 11/14/15 (07:22)

  • big news yesterday was the paris terrorist attacks. the big death toll came at the concert venue where eagles of death metal were supposed to be playing. pretty solid band. that incident sounded the most horrific from what i've heard because apparently they were just gunning people down for 10-15 minutes according to one witness. that's just insanely horrifying. this is one of those situations where there's a lot to compute. so i'll hit some of the day's hot button issues.
  • in much of america there's a decent chance that attacking a crowd that large would end in you getting shot because someone was carrying a weapon. in france, no chance whatsoever. so, for what it's worth, there's actually some validity to the argument that people should be able to own guns for self defense. i know that's not a popular thing to say amongst intellectuals and liberals, but it's an irrefutable and logical argument. it's also logical to say that more guns in society leads to more gun deaths so, in the aggregate, france's system is much better than ours (if reducing total gun deaths is the sole criterion).
  • the immigration/muslim issue is the one that is bouncing around in my head a lot after this. my instinct has been to support immigration and to defend muslims. there are more than a billion muslims in the world and the vast majority don't support this kind of stuff so why not let them in and make the country more diverse, etc. on the other hand you have the bill maher point of view which is basically that there's a hardcore offshoot of muslims that are radically violent and making life difficult for a lot of people. so, while i don't think we can say all muslims need to be kept away or that immigration from these war torn regions is bad, it seems like you can't just turn a blind eye to it either. it seems illogical to screen a 90 year old grandma at the airport the same way you screen a 30 year old male from saudi arabia. in the past i would have said that that kind of profiling is wrong, but i'm not so sure anymore. why do we need to throw logic and probability and facts in the dumpster when it comes to religion and national origin? it seems that any immigration or screening policy of any kind should include a variety of criteria for narrowing down likely suspects and leaving religion or national origin off that list (assuming the statistics support their inclusion) would be silly.
  • it'll be interesting to see if/how this changes the european immigration policies vis a vis the syrian refugees. i'm guessing these people didn't come in as part of that, but in america i'm sure we would have reflexively reacted to contract immigration. will france do the same?
  • so how long is this isis/extreme muslim terrorism stuff going to be front page news? how long do organizations and movements like this generally last? we've already been dealing with this for a generation at least. the first world trade center bombing was in 1993. it's only gotten worse since then. us being over there continues to help them recruit so i still feel like we need to pull out completely and let them sort their own shit out. tell them sorry for severely fucking things up, we take responsibility and we realize that the best thing for everyone is if we stop trying to "help." we're a big part of the problem and the best way we can help is to stop helping.
  • after that it's up to them. idle hands are the devil's workshop...that's something i firmly believe. i have a strong belief that the answer to a lot of young men doing fucked up things, whether it's gangs in chicago or terrorists in yemen, is getting them jobs...or at least playstations. they need to encourage economic growth over there and maybe without our meddling they could do it. isis is a manifestation of powerlessness and free time. get those guys a job or a wife or a farm that's worth keeping up and the vast majority of them will be occupied enough that the truly hardcore crazies won't have enough followers to stay very relevant. remember, it's the followers that make the leaders, not the other way around. followers give the leaders power and meaning. without followers, hitler and and MLK are just guys standing in front of sproul plaza talking to themselves.
  • why is it that so many of them are drawn towards islam, rather than radical buddhism? again, this is where we can't turn a blind eye and just say "well all religions can be perverted." it's sorta true, but more true with some than others. what is it about the violence and calls to action of christianity and islam that has caused so many to follow those religions and kill in their name today and in the past? correct me if i'm wrong, but i haven't heard of people killing in the same numbers in the name of buddhism or judaism. i love the IQ2 podcast wherein they debate hot topics for an hour with 4 debaters. great show. anyway, they tackled the question of whether islam is a religion of peace or not and i had to come away thinking it wasn't. that's a different question than whether or not islam is a religion that promotes violence, however.
  • overall i just think the world is full of shit. it's just so depressing having to contend with all this crap. i don't know why i pay attention to politics. why i have like six podcasts on politics that i listen to all the time. why i watch the debates. why i bother staying in touch with the news. it's just depressing bullshit that i have no control over. i'm a political junkie, though. something about it keeps me interested. i like the two sides of every story element to it. i like the horse race part of it. i like the (occasional) exchange of (actual) ideas. if i could flip a switch, though, i'd stop following it altogether. it's a bunch of infotainment crap. all the news is bullshit depressing spin and bad juju. even though sports are awful and corrupt and essentially worthless, maybe they're better than politics because you can't take them so seriously.
  • the older i get the more i feel like george carlin retreating inward and getting hardened to everything on the outside. the truth is that trump and clinton basically have the same chance of making the world a better place in the end. it doesn't matter all that much to me. just stay out of my way and make sure my water is safe to drink. assholes.


    • 11/08/15 (10:49)

  • half of berkeley high walked out the other day. some kid wrote on the computer that there was going to be a public lynching on 12/9 and people got upset. not to be insensitive, but the reaction to this seems way disproportionate. one student commented that she's supposed to feel safe at school (true) because she doesn't feel safe on the streets (in berkeley, really? ok...) because of police brutality (huh?). i'm not aware of a rash of police brutality in berkeley or anywhere else, really. this is where the media gets out of control. if i were black i'd be much more worried about a gang member or black guy without a job than i would be worried about the cops. but this is where statistics and media hype don't work well together. according to the media we should be afraid of terrorism, yet you're more likely to die from the flu or unintentional poisoning or falling off a ladder. okay, so this kid is disproportionately worried about police violence when the facts indicate she should be more concerned about her neighbor. she's just a kid, no big deal. i'm still not sure why half the school needed to walk out because one dumbass racist decided to write something on the computer. perhaps he should just be publicly shamed and everyone else can go on with their lives. i'm not sure what making a spectacle of the situation accomplishes. the other side of the coin is that the kids don't feel safe because of the church shooting a few months ago and now this is happening. still, it's one of those things where the perceived threat and actual threat have a large gulf between them and in that space are a ton of other things that people should actually be worried about. then again, i'm just a white guy.


    • 11/07/15 (08:55)

  • rough loss for michigan state tonight.
  • clemson is #1 according to the computers?
  • stanford is still overrated, but doing better.
  • did a little baseboard job today. three rooms. had the worst flooring job i've ever seen and that made things tougher than it should have been. still made $400 in 4 hours so i can't complain. it was a last second thing and i try to make good money on the weekends nowadays. those sorts of jobs make up for the fact that i get zero sick pay, paid time off, vacation days, and if i fall off a ladder i don't have any money coming in.
  • could really use an influx of good, new music. it's such a slow trickle for me these days. just not exposed to much. some stuff on the radio, but i usually listen to npr or podcasts. when i listen to music it's old stuff that i know is great. don't talk about music with anyone anymore. don't talk about anything with anyone anymore, actually.


    • 11/02/15 (20:52)

  • so there's a twist to the grandpa dying story. turns out he didn't die when i said he did. heard he died from my sister, who heard from my dad. my dad texted her "my died today and" naturally sarah took that to mean that he had died. long story short, my dad is losing it. his dad ended up dying on 10/22, not 10/20, but, again, the real loss isn't my grandpa, it's now knowing that my dad is slowly (and officially) losing it. ugh.
  • not sure if i've talked about it before, but the eastern span of the bay bridge is a fucking disaster. it costs way too much and we didn't get what we paid for. engineers claim that it's plenty strong even with the bolt problems (and cable moisture issues), but that's utterly besides the point. how well would it go over if i told a client that i built a deck, but didn't dig the footings to the required depth and diameter? they'd be (rightfully) pissed. then, to help them feel better (?), i add "well, the deck will be good enough anyway." it's just crazy. it's also embarrassing. how can liberals support government as a tool for positive change and talk about the good things that it does while in their own backyard this kind of crap happens? you can't. you just have to shake your head and admit that government can sometimes fuck up in colossal ways. at best, you can defend your position by pointing out other good things that government has done (most of them 50+ years ago) or by saying, "well, private enterprise fucks things up too. at least when government fucks up you can vote them out of office." and that's really the only defense i can come up with as someone who generally thinks that government can be a tool for positive social change. at the same time, stuff like this and gridlock and the bloated state and federal bureaucracy make me very wary of my own position.
  • been working on redoing a porch for a woman the last few days. i took out the old guardrails and gate, demoed the old craftsman style columns, and i've started rebuilding everything. also put in a new gate adjacent to the porch. a couple things i would have done differently now that i've done it and thought about it more. this is the downside of being a generalist. if i were rebuilding porches, decks and fences everyday (and that's not even that specialized a range of things to be doing) then i'd have a very clear vision of how this project should be approached and could do it more confidently and efficiently. as is, there is more stopping and thinking and second guessing and wishing i had approached it a different way. i don't think i've done a bad job and she's happy so far, but sometimes i wish i could do a few of the same project in a row so i could get a rhythm down instead of being a fencing/deck guy one week and installing recessed lights the next.
  • the other aspect of this is that it's a multi-day project which usually works out pretty well for me. i make good money on those and i'm not running all over town. it has made fitting in other work difficult, though. so, the challenge with these is how do i juggle getting new work, fitting in steady customers for time sensitive work, and getting the job at hand done in a timely manner. most contractors i see string out the current job over a long period of time. showing up on site for a few hours, running to get material, following up a lead, etc. i've been trying to get really good about weeding out tire kickers and getting the customer to give as much information as possible to avoid a site visit prior to doing the work. so, i'll have them send me a picture of the problem. i'll give a high-ish estimate for dinky jobs with new customers to either weed them out or get a good profit on it. it's always a challenge, though, juggling everything.
  • we put in an offer on a house a week or two ago. it was way out of our price range and we still went over asking. but it was on a full acre and was very buildable and we could live in it on day one. the idea was to build a two unit rental behind the house and rent it out. i do a lot of work for a property manager so he confirmed our expected rent and gave us some pointers on becoming landlords. the rental income mixed with our income would have allowed us to make the mortgage. the house went for 325k over what we offered.
  • the reality is that what we want just isn't possible for what we make. meryl doesn't work as much as she used to because of merritt, but i net twice what i was making at the alumni house so we're making more than we were before even after the healthcare. the reality is, though, that you need to be legitimately rich to own what we want. we have rich family so we can borrow from them and that's a big advantage that a lot of people don't have, but we don't earn enough to be rich in the bay area. the cool thing about working for yourself, though, is that you can work more if you want more money. so, i could work 6-7 days a week again and i could bill 10 hours a day, but there would be a cost to that (family).
  • i currently bill around 35-40 hours a week which is pretty efficient. i've done this through setting up my truck properly, being prepared for each job, minimizing trips to look at work or go to the hardware store, grouping trips together (go to hardware store on the way to picking up zoe, for example). i think i've done a good job of that so while i'm usually away from home 730a-430p, i'm only not billing maybe an hour-ish a day. that's quite good for a service/small jobs oriented setup. if you take into account bookkeeping, banking, estimates, hardware store trips, emails, returning calls, etc. i usually work a 9 hour day. if i worked 8a-5p and did that 6 days a week then i think we could have afforded to buy that house, but i'd get burnt out pretty quickly. that's 54 hours a week in the field, plus trips to the hardware store and looking at new jobs. i don't really understand how people with families work 60+ hours a week. they must never see their kids.

    • would have been a great house, though. maybe even better than the other house we offered on, though definitely more stressful. had an unfinished basement area that was about 37'x35' (plus extra space that wasn't full height) which i would have poured a slab on and called my shop. plus it had a two car garage and 3 bedrooms. plus it was on a flat acre. was ugly and outdated, but that was a good thing because it meant it didn't go for 600k over asking. i'm currently busting at the seams with my shop situation. it's 19'x19' and just isn't enough space for what i have and what i do. i usually have a project or two that i'm working on and no space to spread out. a couple weeks ago i was working on some custom picture frames and table restoration at the same time. between those things, a miter saw, table saw and workbench i just don't have any room to maneuver. realistically i'd like twice the space or more.

    10/20/15 (22:20)

  • grandpa hal died today. pretty much stopped talking with him after i turned about 13 so it wasn't a great loss for me. he was kind of a good old boy, racist, southern guy who left my dad and grandma's family pretty early on so he was always persona non grata in my mind. he could be fun in the way that southern frat boy types could be fun, but even at a young age i knew there was less than meets the eye. that said, being shunned by basically your whole family is a pretty tough cross to bear. my dad was the only one on this side of the family that ever talked with him. guess that's the kind of guy my dad is. apparently my dad is sad about it and i guess losing your dad is always sad even if he's a loser in a lot of ways. but i think you can't lose what you never had.
  • mostly it makes me think about failed potential and my dad's lack of a dad for basically his whole life and how that's affected everything in my family. it just takes one asshole leaving a mother with three kids to set a lot of things in motion and that's what we had in my family. for my dad's part he left me and my mom when i wasn't even 1 yet. came back a few years later and tried to make a run at the family thing and couldn't keep it together for whatever reason, but both my parents always stuck around and so that's more than my dad had. i guess what i'm getting at is that the sad thing isn't that hal died today, it's that he never really lived the right way in the first place. for better or worse, avoiding this fate is basically what i strive to do every day with my family. hopefully, for my girls, this generation will be a reset on the dysfunction caused in large part by hal.
  • perhaps my most clear memory of hal will always be the michigan/north carolina national championship game. i was 13 and we were in hawaii watching the game on tv. he wanted some action so he bet me $20. he said he'd bet against whatever team i wanted to bet on. kind of a dick move, but whatever. i picked michigan. blah blah blah, chris webber almost travels, etc. awful ending to that game and it'll live with me forever, but at some point in the 4th quarter unc was beating michigan and he said "it looks like my niggers are doing better than yours." i think i pretty much wrote the guy off after that. maybe if michigan had come back to win the game i wouldn't remember that part. maybe the agony of that defeat solidified that moment and gave it deeper meaning. i've always looked at the game as a great loss in my life, but maybe it was a good thing. never thought about it that way before.


    • 10/18/15 (12:42)

  • we're letting merritt cry it out lately. last night was the first night where we really committed to the idea. the two previous nights we would let her cry about 5 minutes and then soothe for a minute or two. now we're letting her cry completely and not giving her the pacifier. hasn't been great so far, but there are encouraging signs. hopefully at the end of these 3 days or so she'll be able to put herself back to sleep and we'll all be happier.
  • looked at a nice house today. way outside of our price range so we'd have to build and in-law unit and rent it out to make it work. kind of a dream other than the price so it comes down to how much do i want to work and will it be worth it to stretch right now with the prospect of more money in the future. tough call. probably wouldn't get it at asking price anyway.


    • 10/17/15 (07:55)

  • merritt is waking up every 1-2 hours at night. 4 month sleep regression didn't happen with zoe, but it's happening big time with merritt. so far our game plan has been crap and so we're miserable.
  • the usc coaching issue has been a problem for a while now. sark wasn't ever going to work out for one reason or another, but alcoholism wasn't the reason i would have guessed. good thing they decided to just take the band-aid off instead of giving him time or trying to wait it out. it's better for him and it's better for the program. it would be nice to have a guy who is no nonsense. i liked orgeron.
  • andrew sullivans said on real time with bill maher the other day that hillary clinton is a hack. i thought it was harsh, but even anne marie slaughter, who loves hillary and thinks she's one of the smartest people in the world, didn't cite many accomplishments. as an aside, i think slaughter is smarter than hillary. got me thinking about what hillary has actually done. she's been around a long time, but she didn't actually author any major legislation. she fucked up on the iraq vote. the clintons in general have ethical issues. she's in the pockets of wall street. the more i think about her the less impressed i am with what's supposed to be her strong suit - her experience.
  • so, clinton seems less impressive each day. sanders is right on the issues, but seems weak on foreign policy. he stumbled on putin and i don't know that he would be able to handle that part of the job well. he'd have to have a great secretary of state. doesn't much matter though because he'll never win.
  • the best thing going for the dems right now is that the reps are pretty fractured. from a horse race standpoint this is interesting stuff.


    • 10/14/15 (19:05)

  • apple finds new ways to make itunes the worst program in computer history with each new update. steve jobs would be proud if he were capable of anything other than being a dick.
  • "if you kick all the latinos out of the country, who's going to clean your toilet mr. trump?" - kelly osbourne


    • 10/11/15 (08:56)

  • for the other part of meryl's birthday we went to commis on sunday. i'm pretty sure that's the only michelin star rated restaurant currently in the east bay. chez panisse was at one point, but isn't any longer. it's more than i'll ever spend on a meal again, i hope, but it was pretty good. not like 20 times better than chipotle, but better. vey textural, lots of courses, some interesting stuff. got to have foie gras, which wasn't as good as the hype. overall a good experience, but i'm not fancy enough for a place like that.
  • ucb had a rough game yesterday. 6 turnovers. utah didn't play much better, but well enough to pull out the win. ugly overall. i expected them to win, but if you told me they would have 6 TOs i'd expect a loss of 21+.


    • 10/4/15 (07:24)

  • meryl's 30th birthday yesterday. we went to the park then came home for a nap. then we went to six flags and had some fun there with 3 grandparents. we were able to go on 2 roller coaster rides which were more fun than i remember, but i'm getting old for that stuff. the rest of the time was spent making sure zoe was happy. ah, parenthood.
  • the daily show with jon stewart ended a couple months ago. as far as i'm concerned his legacy is greater than any other late night host i've ever known. johnny carson, david letterman, etc. colbert is funny, john oliver is doing great things at hbo, but jon stewart is better than them all. maybe not as funny at times, but he had it all. great interviews that actually had real depth to them, great humor, great balance, thoughtful reflection, etc. he was the best. i rewatched the 9/11 special and it felt somewhat affected, but he was almost always on and almost never wrong.
  • i've watched the trevor noah shows and so far he's pretty funny. his interview with chris christie wasn't anywhere near as good as jon stewart's stuff with politicians, however. we'll see how noah grows and which direction he takes the show. having seen him as a correspondent under stewart, i certainly wouldn't have picked him to run the show, but he seems to be better as a host than he was as a correspondent. it's interesting that all the stories i've heard or read about noah start out almost the exact same - they mention his name, his age, his race, what he does and where he's from. e.g. the new host is trevor noah, a 31 year old biracial comedian from south africa.
  • cal won a close game yesterday and are undefeated. they've had two wins when they could have lost so it's a little iffy. if they win next week against utah, though, then they are legit.
  • usc is overrated. i never thought they were a top ten team with that defense. utah may actually be the best team in the pac-12 this year. stanford is no good anymore since luck and harbaugh left. oregon is down this year. usc has a great offense, but no defense. the rest of the teams appear to be mediocre.
  • kaepernick is just as good today as he's always been. only difference is that defenses have figured him out a bit and the rest of the team isn't as good. i'll say it one more time - he has no qb iq, he has one throw (fastball), and he runs too frequently. he's another in a long line of qbs who have a couple good statistical years because they are good at running. next.
  • the niners are worse than i thought they would be on defense. their offense is just as bad as i expected, which is why i predicted zero tds in a preseason game (that they won. with zero offensive tds, go figure).
  • marriota appears to be pretty good in the nfl. wouldn't have predicted that. i'm generally quite bad at picking qbs who will make it at the next level. i thought leinert would be good. i thought ken dorsey would be good. i didn't think bridgewater would be any good. however, i did know that kaepernick, a 27 year old biracial qb from milwaukee, would not last. haha. same goes for jesus boy tebow.


    • 9/27/15 (13:02)

  • had a six day week again after a while without doing that. kinda needed it though since i have been chasing jobs more than working good paying ones the last two weeks or so since a big job fell through.
  • also had a big opportunity to do property management fall through because the bank that owns the debt on the property was being shady. that was unfortunate.
  • upgraded my itunes from 10.something to 12.something. it still sucks and is a resource hog.
  • white people are fucking retarded.


    • 9/12/15 (13:46)
  • i really don't understand why someone hasn't opened a business to allow people to "make their own movie." you go in, you have different options to choose from, then you go in a room with a bed and as many prostitutes as you want. at the end you get a dvd of your "film" and walk out happy and not arrested. since the business is facilitating the making of art it's totally legit. in being legit it is able to charge more, test its prostitutes and keep everything clean and safe. this whole business of prostitution being legal only when you film it is just one of the dumbest things i've ever heard of.
  • zoe is one of the most stubborn people i've ever met.
  • when the tea party movement started i thought it was kinda racist. then i talked with a bunch of them and thought they were just fed up with government overreach and incompetence. now it seems like the reasonable ones have boiled off and the core is left with the racists. it's too bad that the republican part has been co-opted by racist xenophobes, but i actually think that's what's happened. there's a vocal minority that is either overtly racist or okay with being adjacent to racists which is just as bad in a way. not to invoke godwin's law, but in the case of hitler it's not so much that he was a bad guy, it's that he had a lot of followers. i mean he was an awful guy, but that only goes so far. they had a ted talk about this in a way. one dancing guy on the subway is just a weirdo. but when someone starts dancing along with him and others follow it becomes a movement. it's not just one weirdo anymore because of the followers. if germany had just listened to hitler and said, "yeah that's great, but this hating jews stuff is too crazy for us," then history would have been different. rush or glenn beck or whatever other nut job out there is just our version of the crazy guy dancing on the subway.
  • i've tried reasoning with some of these people, but it doesn't get too far. we'll have a conversation about blacks and it basically goes like this. why do blacks commit so many more crimes than other groups? why do blacks ruin neighborhoods when they move in? i'll come back with something about slavery, jim crow, etc. having a lasting effect. it ruining the family unit. racist laws. disproportionate policing in black neighborhoods. poor education in black neighborhoods. etc. they'll come back with the family unit was fine in the 50s and 60s until the great society which destroyed black families and made them all go on the govt. dole. back and forth like that in a senseless circle. conversations about race on the internet lead to a lot of positive things, clearly.


    • 9/6/15 (11:01)

  • lots of good tv on these days and it makes it quite difficult to keep up.


    • 9/4/15 (16:27)

  • my ipod took a dump this morning. restoring it now and we'll see what happens. going to take forever to copy everything back over. not sure why they haven't come out with a larger ipod yet. 160gb is way too small. it was $250 when i got it, now it's $400 because i guess they don't make them anymore. they went in the wrong direction, wtf? today was not the best.
  • haven't done a very good job of updating this page. i guess it's hard to stay enthusiastic after 17 years and a couple kids. jeesh, this is my 17th year doing this. netscape composer probably isn't installed on anyone else's computer, much less used on a regular basis. looked at some old posts from then. i made $97.75 for working 17 hours apparently. that puts things in perspective! made more than $100/hr on the last big job i did. guess i've come a long way economically speaking. also have a lot more i have to pay for.
  • here's one from 1999: "pretty much have enough money for xmas and car insurance so that's good considering i don't have a job as of the day after tomorrow. i propose instead of having to say 'the day after tomorrow'...we should from this day forth say: 'twomorrows' - it seems that if 'tomorrow' can be replaced with 'the day after today', then there should be something for 'the day after tomorrow' - just a thought."
  • wrote a lot about music and sex and life and politics. not sure what i write about nowadays.
  • helped that a lot of my updates were at 3am.
  • i really do miss those late nights of listening to music in the dark and just thinking about things and writing. not having to worry about work the next day was pretty awesome.


    • 9/4/15 (7:28)
  • they have a "viagra" for women now and it was just approved. 1. from what i understand it has a lot of complications and interactions so it probably shouldn't have been approved. 2. it's not viagra which solves a physical problem with increased blood flow. it's a brain chemistry pill that seeks to get women more horny by messing with the brain. 3. it's not solving a malfunctioning body part as viagra does. it's trying to make women more horny so that they more closely match the horniness of men. my conclusion is there probably shouldn't be a drug for this and it most certainly shouldn't be this one. big pharma wins again.


    • 9/2/15 (19:50)

  • 4 days in a row.
  • last couple days of work have been tough. getting tired and achy.
  • this one is for ryan.


    • 9/1/15 (07:41)
  • three days of updates in a row.
  • one distinction some people have tried to make in the rachel dolezal situation is that she had white privlege and was choosing to be black from a position of that privlege whereas that doesn't occur in transgender cases. eh. the economist has a good story on it and i think they're right to say that being black isn't always a negative, despite what some people would have you think.
  • speaking of being black, i wish i was black when it comes to skin cancer. my 4th surgery was supposedly successful so i'm cancer free again. we'll see how long that lasts. my eybrow has been lifted three times now and the surgeon pointed out that some people pay good money for this. haha. in my case, though, it looks like i'm constantly surprised or skeptical or something because my left eybrow is raised noticeably at all times. awesome.
  • how the states got their shapes is a really good show on the history channel and i've been watching it on netflix. looks at the history of a lot of different things that have literally shaped the states, as well as shaped our culture. based on the book. host is a cross between morgan spurlock and mike rowe.


    • 8/31/15 (22:51)

  • when i was working at tower someone asked me and a couple other clerks where we thought music was going in the next 10-20 years. i said hybridization. everyone borrows from everyone else. pop music has hip-hop and electronica now. world music has worked its way into the culture, etc. i think i was dead on about that. i think it's also true for the larger society. i think part of it is the internet and the fact that it allows everyone to exchange ideas so easily. it's great because we can take what we like from one society or one artform and apply it to our own. saw the image below online somewhere and it made me think of this. we're moving into some interesting territory these days in a lot of ways and it'll be interesting to see if/how/when the pendulum swings from side to side.


    • 8/30/15 (14:20)
  • looks like the niners are going to suck pretty hard this year. kaepernick is going to finally be exposed for what he is this season. there are still people who think he's great, including most nfl fans who have made his jersey the second most purchased jersey in the league. overrated doesn't begin to cover it.


    • 08/18/15 (21:38)

  • my wrist actually hurts more after being on the computer for an hour than from using my drill or hammer for a day. go figure.
  • it's astonishing to me that endtroducing... is almost 20 years old now. just makes me feel quite old.


    • 8/16/15 (19:20)

  • trump is pro single payer healthcare, a hillary supporter, etc. and yet he's leading the polls in the republican party. why? 1. because the polls at this stage are almost worthless and have more to do with name recognition than policy. 2. because he's not afraid to be anti-pc with a tinge of racism and this resonates with a sizable minority of the republican party. i don't think he'll win their nomination, but he has the leverage to do it. i think it's more likely that he'll fizzle out in the polls. an early peak like this is usually not a great sign. it's not very frequent when someone is number one at this point in the election and goes on to win it. leading wire to wire is difficult when there is competition. hillary has no competition and incumbents have no competition, but this, with 17 major republicans running, is a different story.
  • the x factor is his ego. like i said, he has the leverage (massive amounts of money and the balls to throw the republicans under the bus) to be a player one way or another. does he decide to do that or not? should be fun to watch the american political process take another step towards the shitter.
  • merritt has been getting on a night time schedule lately and that's been a big quality of life improvement. she sleeps at 630p and we can usually get 5-7 hours straight and then the rest of the night she'll wake once or twice to eat. the last sleep period is sometimes restless, but overall it's a big improvement. i think it was time and the acid reflux medicine that did it.
  • it's 82 in the house right now.
  • worked yesterday. first six day work week in a while. m-f i was working on a kitchen facelift. alter the cabinets to make a dishwasher fit, install some doors for a pantry, install recessed lights and a fan above the stove. that was about 4 days of work. next week will be paint, but i hand that off to juan who has done a lot of work for us including our house, some work for my mom and aunt and meryl's dad. he does the work, i give him the job and we both make money of it. this kind of arrangement seems like a path to the future. some call it a "paper contractor" where one guy does no work, but puts all the subs together. that's not what i want to do. i'd like to be a facilitator - get the client, set the course, fill in the gaps between the subs, do some of the work that i enjoy doing and let the experts handle the stuff they do every day. this is what a "general contractor" does, though they usually are thought of as carpenters who have subs. i do carpentry, but i prefer other things over that.
  • anyway, this week will be paint and then i have to install the cabinet hardware, dishwasher and finish some little things off.
  • been getting a ridiculous number of work requests lately. i've turned away as much in the last month as i have in the last 4 months combined. some little stuff, some big stuff, some stuff out of my desired area. it's just crazy right now. if i wanted to i could easily clone myself and stay busy. so, why don't i hire someone? a few big reasons.
  • 1. i don't know anyone who can do what i can do. this isn't a brag, it's actually more a comment on the number of people i know in the trades. there are a couple people i know who i could train, but one of them has his own business and one of them is an illegal immigrant with limited language skills. i could go looking for people, but that would take time and energy away from what is already a profitable business and what's the upside to that? if i find someone good and reliable i have to pay them $25/hr+ and i can bill them at $60/hr. after ss and taxes and wc i'm probably paying them close to $50/hr so i'm making $10/hr on them. that's nice, but would it be worth it or is it better to not do that work and just raise my personal rates $5/hr. a lot less work to do that and then there's no pressure to find more work. i take what i want and work for whomever i please. which brings us to...
  • 2. an employee is a burden. beyond the needing to find a good one and dealing with them showing up drunk or not at all or breaking my tools or needing help with something or whatever. an employee needs steady work to stay your employee. now i go from having plenty of work to an okay amount of work for two people. now i need to make sure i hustle to get more work so i can always have something for the employee to do. that means more running around town trying to get work.
  • 3. starting down that road is a tough one and inertia is a powerful thing. basically this is the clincher. why mess with a good thing? i have my pick of projects and enough money for my liking (though i wouldn't mind more) so starting a whole new thing by having an employee doesn't make as much sense for me.
  • so, when does it make sense? if i were chasing bigger jobs then it would make sense. a second pair of hands would be useful if i were building decks or doing kitchen rehabs or whatever, but right now i'm a small time handyman who dabbles in larger projects when the right situation comes up. right now i think the things that make me successful are:
  • 1. returning calls and emails, woody allen is a piece of shit, but he said one good thing and that's that 80% of life is showing up. it's true and especially with being in the trades. for whatever reason a lot of guys just don't answer the phone or return calls or follow through. i do that almost all the time and it's worked out well for me.
  • 2. being somewhat capable. i'm definitely not great at what i do, but i'm pretty good. i've been full time just over a year and dabbling for a lot longer. i read the major magazines, have the code book next to the toilet, etc. i like learning about the stuff and i practice it 5+ days a week so i've learned some things. but i do a lot of different stuff so i'm still not great at anything (electrical is probably what i'm best at). this is just business 101 - answer the phone and do a decent job. i think i have those two covered.
  • 3. turning away time suckers and tire kickers. some jobs are time pits and some customers are just looking for a price. learning which jobs to turn away is invaluable and i've learned that pretty quickly. either it's an esoteric part that you know you'll never find or it's a can of worms type project. both of those will kill profit. i've never lost a penny on a job i didn't take. some customers are like this as well. they just want something cheap or they want to do part of the project and have you do the other part (they usually don't know what's going on and will end up wasting your time). other customers are impossible to please or ask a million questions. the pareto principle is something to keep in mind here. stay away from the 20% and life will be easier.
  • 4. running a lean operation focused on getting billable hours. this is the most fun one for me and was the hardest to get good at. truck organization is key here. having a system for organizing my tools and materials, knowing what materials and tools i'm likely to need on any given job, etc. those all come together for having a lean operation. ideally i want to make a couple trips to the truck, get in and get out. at all costs i want to avoid a trip to the hardware store or house because i didn't have a part or forgot something. this is why i keep about 10 different types of paint and primer with me at all times. i have painting and drywall tools and patching compounds with me always. i have every drill bit i'll ever need with me all the time. i have a variety of saws, a fan, a blower, a grinder, 3 sanders, dozens of types of files, sandpaper, grinding attachments, etc. with me always. i always have electrical and plumbing stuff. electrical boxes, switches, outlets, gfci, afci, plumbing nipples from 1/2" close through 1/2" x 6". i have several plumbing valves with me always as well. an hvac box for dryer vents, exhaust fans, etc. i always have 5 different levels, dozens of kinds of screws (interior and exterior), a dozen tubes of caulking, two 2x4s (one treated, one untreated), a ladder good enough for a 9' ceiling and much more. i can do 80% of the jobs i do without needing to get anything from the garage the morning before i leave. all these tools are grouped by task/trade so i can grab a box and have all the tools i need right there. i can get in and get out without slowing to improvise or make a trip. this has been huge for me.
  • been eating too much sugar lately. but it's so good.


    • 8/8/15 (12:40)
  • have we progressed at all since we were living in difference tribes 1,000 years ago? seems to me that it was a better life back then. on the other hand, i think things are probably better now than they were 100 years ago.
  • presidential debate the other day was entertaining. trump could very well be hijacking the whole thing. as long as he has 20% of the people he'll be able to threaten a third party run, thereby giving the election to clinton. republicans can either call his bluff or get behind him and hope he beats her as a republican. this is what balls and money get you. he's kinda brilliant i guess.


    • 8/7/15 (20:21)

  • watched one movie in july.


    • 8/4/15 (21:07)
  • crying echoes in my ears throughout the day. fml.


    • 7/29/15 (13:30)

  • jobs are piling up like crazy. it's better than the other extreme, of course, but it's silly how much work i could have, if i took everything.


    • 7/27/15 (19:01)

  • first day working for a general contractor. went pretty well. building a deck. pretty familiar with it and think i did well enough.
  • merritt is doing a bit better now with the acid reflux medicine. i don't like medicine, but we do what we have to do and she was clearly in pain - crying hours a day. i think we also have gotten past the worst of the time shift problem now so she is settling into her new schedule and that's been going pretty well.
  • more skin cancer on my forehead. this is now four incidences for those who are keeping count. getting skin cancer four times before turning 36 is pretty awesome. probably not winning any awards, but it seems to be something i'm good at without even trying so there's that.
  • so, obviously we live in a post-modern age. we have trans-gender and trans-racial people now. i really do understand the conservatives who make a slippery slope argument when it comes to the gay marriage issue because it's a time when the argument actually makes some sense. usually i find that argument to be a crutch for those who don't have a valid point to make. but there's not really a logical reason to draw the line with two people of either sex marrying each other. the conservatives couldn't say it was about procreation because people in their 80s can get married. the liberals can't say it's about being born that way because i would argue that there are plenty of people who are born to be polygamists. the daily show actually made that argument and i think it's one of the few times they've been very wrong. so, there's no logical reason to draw the line where we have other than a simple political one. i haven't heard this argument being made because everyone wants to claim it's a human rights issue, but reality is that it's a political decision that's been made because gays have enough political power to have turned the tide. non-gays support it enough now that their representatives either don't fight it or agree with it and so we have gay marriage. should polygamists get enough political clout to raise the issue then there's no logical moral underpinning for denying them the right. the only thing one can argue is that it creates logistical issues because marriage is tied to health benefits and a host of other things and allowing one person to marry an entire town could create real and serious issues as things stand.
  • all that is to say that i'm for polygamists being able to get married. and in tribute to the sister wives show, i think the number should be arbitrarily capped at 5 total people in a marriage. it's not an outrageous number, but it's inclusive enough to make the polygamists happy.
  • if i were starting a society i'd probably make it difficult to own a weapon. however, since that ship has sailed long ago, i think the best we can do is restrict magazine capacity and weapon type. basically i would look at restricting caliber size and and shot rate. those seem to make sense. beyond that i don't know that much makes sense. i also believe there is a valid argument to be made for hunters, sportsmen, and self-defense. the second amendment itself is more tricky because, as i understand it, it's more about restricting a standing army than it is commenting on the rights of individuals to own arms. in other words, i don't think we're that far away from a more sensible gun policy on the whole. that said, i think the nra has too much power and there are ways in which it has historically restricted research, for example, that need to go bye bye. obama has done some of this and i'm not sure how much is left to be done. no real good argument that they have for this kind of thing, but it suits their politics so it's there sitting in the background. amazing stuff.
  • the confederate flag thing is funny because it's so obvious. it makes no sense for any official government flags or whatever to bear the flag of a treasonous army. duh. it also doesn't make much sense for conservatives who supposedly love america to hold up the confederate battle flag as a sign of pride or tradition. just crazy nonsensical stuff. weird that between the south and texas there are so many people who love america yet hold up signs of america as a fractured place (lone star state and confederacy). paradoxical. add to that the slavery issue which was a cornerstone of the confederacy and it's a no-brainer all around.
  • that said, trying to scrub it from our history is also stupid. the dukes of hazzard issue is perhaps the best example of the overreaction. it's no longer on tv land and they're taking the flag off the car apparently. typical politically correct b.s. which just fuels a backlash from the conservatives.
  • then there's donald trump who is probably the biggest ego in popular culture today. he's a pathetic piece of shit and i'd say he's a moron, but he's got way more money than i'll ever see and he's somehow been able to keep himself "relevant" for 20+ years.


    • 7/20/15 (20:46)

  • merritt seems to have pretty bad gas problems. we've tried pretty much everything. massages, simethicone, letting her cry, different kinds of holds and swaddles and the usual crap. it seems like every tom, dick and harry out there has some drops or magic hold or diaper changing technique that will cure this problem. i feel bad for all the parents who waste their money on it hoping to get some sanity and sleep out of it. none of it works for our kids. simethicone seemingly worked for two days and she's back to her usual self now. i'm pretty fed up with it. i'm not sure how i was able to stay up until 4am with zoe and not be a basket case. i pretty much want to kill every bad driver and asshole i come across on the street now. that's the major side effect it's had on me. meryl, on the other hand, is in despair and just wants merritt to stop crying. again, not sure if we're unlucky or just really bad at this stuff.
  • i'm booked out about six weeks now. ended up taking off about a week and a half when i intended on taking off all of july. i'm not working saturday, sunday and tuesday right now and i have one big project that i've been doing at home so it's a bit like a vacation, but not really.
  • there's this spot near the alameda/oakland border where home depot (next to mcdonalds in the picture below) is that is often packed with cars that are backed up going on to high street. the city has fucked with the lights and lanes on howard street a few times. there's a one lane (each way) road (alameda ave) leading to a two lane road (howard st) which leads to high street which also has two lanes going both ways. today i was on alameda ave which was backed up all the way into the home depot parking lot. i'm waiting in line like everyone else and a minivan goes into the oncoming lane to pass all of us and then turn onto howard street, thereby cutting off a car and cutting in front of the whole line of cars waiting to get onto high street. she then goes into the right lane on howard (which is now a right turn only) and takes a left turn from that lane onto high street. so there's that.
  • the other day i was driving with my dad on 880 about half a mile north of the pictured area below and a truck comes flying by us followed by about a half dozen chp cars in pursuit. i asked my dad why they don't just pull up next to the guy and shoot him in the face. i was kidding of course, but, really, what's the downside of doing that? i'm sure there is one, but the upside seems higher to me right at this point. anyway, it would be nice if someone did that to the crazy driver in the minivan.


    • 7/14/15 (17:38)
  • met with a general contractor this morning about working for him. my aunt is having him do some work on her new house and he just lost a journeyman so he's looking for help. sounds like he may be able to use me from time to time and i'll be able to keep my business going as well. this would be ideal seeing as i make more money working for myself than i would working for anyone else. so i'll lose out on some earning potential, but also gain some experience working on larger projects. if it works out i may be able to parlay it into enough work to finally get the general b license.
  • had a big garage structure project with meryl's stepdad yesterday. back is sore today.


    • 7/12/15 (10:27)

  • merritt hasn't been sleeping all that well lately. she fusses more as well. i'm not sure if we suck at this or are just unlucky. oh well. that said, last night was good.


    • 7/5/15 (14:24)

  • was planning on taking most of the month off and then about a million people called me asking me to work and now i'm working again somehow. this kinda sucks, but i did it to myself.
  • merritt sleeps well at night maybe half the time. the other half she doesn't go to sleep until 2 or 3a. it sucks. my feeling about baby stuff is that there are a lot of ideas out there and talk about growth spurts or spirited children or other buzzwords and pseudo explanations, but none of it actually helps very much when the rubber hits the road. it's all well and good to read about this stuff, but ultimately i want a way to fix the issue and the long story short is that you get what you get and you just have to deal with it. maybe there's a reason for it, maybe there isn't. for me, knowing the reason doesn't make a difference unless it leads to a solution and with this stuff, more often than not, it doesn't seem to.
  • had plans to do a bunch of stuff around the house with july off. finally fix and paint the ceiling in my office, get the built-ins installed in the laundry room and finish that room, finish the truck organization, finish the bed frame build, etc. i've tackled some of that, but not the big things. made headway on the truck and the bed. the truck now has nifty slots for my levels and other long items. the bed frame now has drawer fronts.
  • did get both the cars serviced. going to the dentist and dermatologist soon as well. still not as much as i wanted to get done.
  • zoe loves hanging out with merritt and always wants to hold her which is good to a point.

    • allergies are killing me lately. thought i was sick or something, but i don't think that's it. my allergies get worse every year. i'm looking into the shots now. it's a big commitment from what i understand (need to go in weekly or bi-weekly), but it would be worth it if it solved the issue.

    6/28/15 (13:20)

  • merritt loves to eat and sleep which is pretty great. only down side is that she loves to sleep on our chest instead of on her own (even though she's in bed with us).
  • i think there's too much emphasis on the birth environment and process and early parenting in general, actually. i very highly doubt that anything that happens during birth has a great effect on a child's life; short of lack of oxygen, death of mother, etc. in my cousin's case they did it the old fashioned way and the midwife was out with another couple so they had to do it on their own (in the middle of idaho) and he was born in a pretty stressed situation without oxygen, they thought he was going to die, etc. anyway, now he has asperger's and is generally a pretty strange (but great) kid. the idea, though, that bringing a kid into the world via c section vs. in a lavender infused hot springs bath is going to alter their life path is pretty far-fetched to me.
  • meryl has worried about this as well as wanting to have a good birth experience. these are white people problems. we've come to far for our own good in some ways. not only does a partner need to provide children and financial support for the other, but now they have to be the other's best friend, best lover, have the same taste in culture and politics, etc. the list of ways in which peole must be good for each other is now endless. the same thing goes for giving birth. it's no longer about getting the kid out as safely as possible for mother and kid, it's about having a spiritual experience, it's about how has the best birth story on facebook, it's about who gets back to their pre-pregnancy weight earliest, or whatever. strange culture we live in. this isn't to say that we wouldn't have like to avoid a c section for both girls - we would have - but i also don't think the way it turned out is going to lead to any less happiness or success for either of them.
  • which brings me to TED talks. i used to have them on podcast and it basically came down to this - i'm great and you can be too if you just do this little (supposedly science-based) thing to change your life. the science on this stuff is so wishy washy to me it's not even worth listening anymore. if you believe the TED talks then you have to believe that it's possible for almost anyone to live to 120 just by playing video games and communicating better with their significant other. i call bullshit. just call it what it is - pep talks. leave the pseudo science out of it.


    • 6/27/15 (10:12)

  • merritt's birth experience was different than zoe's. we had to wait more than we thought, of course, but it wasn't a long drawn out waiting game of hoping, two weeks after the due date, that the labor would kick in and do its thing. surgery and all that entails isn't the most romantic way of having a baby and it recalls a sort of sci-fi experience, but that's what we were left with and it turned out to be the right choice because meryl's uterine muscle was quite thin and likely would have had problems leading to a c-section anyway.
  • this time around i got to see them yanking the baby out. i've now seen the inside of meryl's belly twice. surgery isn't so bad.


    • 6/26/15 (21:57)

  • four people in the family now. transition hasn't been too bad so far. zoe likes merritt and wishes she did more than just lay around all day. she wants her to talk and play. merritt is fairly low key which is great because she sleeps pretty well. mostly she just loves eating and sleeping and that's perfect. that's all the time i have now.


    • 6/21/15 (22:07)

  • going to get merritt tomorrow morning. weird feeling to know when she's going to be born. we're hoping she's a mellow kid. we think zoe will be a great big sister.


    • 6/17/15 (19:32)

  • warriors in six. called that, should have gone to vegas with that. wait, i was just there. odds were horrible and having to go back to cash in a winning bet wasn't going to happen.
  • pretty cool that the mvp of the series was a customer of mine. i weirdly take some pride in that.
  • happy for them. kerr is a solid coach and did a much better job (with a lot more) than blatt. i like that he wasn't afraid to mix up the line-up and make big changes. iguodala in the starting lineup, benching bogut, giving ezeli a lot of minutes, going 11 men deep in the finals. these are very uncommon things and he did them all; and won.


    • 6/15/15 (22:20)

  • this dolezal woman who says she's black is just caitlin jenner but for race instead of gender. you can try to make it different, but it really isn't. we don't have the vocab for it yet and it's not as prevalent, but it's essentially the same thing so anyone who is outraged by dolezal lying and is cheering on jenner is a hypocrite. dolezal is just in the closet or in denial, but she's transracial and that's the world we live in. if you're fine with jenner then you better come to grips with this woman too. south park called this stuff years ago.
  • warriors finally looked good in their last game. kerr is a much better coach than the other guy. lebron has never had a good coach, actually. sucks for him.


    • 6/9/15 (21:02)

  • cavs are up by 13 in the 3rd quarter right now and i'm thinking about this series. if they are able to win this game then they'll be up 2-1 in a series that they should lose in 5 or 6 games. if, by some miracle, the cavs are able to win the series then i think it'll be the most impressive finals run i can remember in my lifetime. this includes the lakers run where they went 15-2 or whatever in 2000. that was just a team firing on all cylinders with kobe, shaq and phil jackson. the cavs have one star (lebron), two great players (love and irving), and some role players (most of whom are far past their prime). their two great players are out for the series and haven't played in their last three wins. irving played in game one, which went to OT and they lost. if they win this series then i think lebron is a better player than jordan. he'll have half as many rings, but he'll have done it at least once without any real support. would jordan have won a championship without pippen and horace grant? what about without phil jackson? then there are the numbers and the matchup problems that lebron creates with his physique.
  • it also has me thinking about lebron vs. curry as that's the matchup of the two stars. curry is at the point in his career where he is great, but he's not elite yet. he hasn't had great success at the next level. it's something every player has to go through early in their career. from shaq and his loss with penny to the rockets to jordan's early losses to the pistons. great players don't normally go all the way in their first couple chances in the playoffs. they need to smell that championship, lose it, and that hardens their resolve which in turn makes them elite competitors. watching the first three games it's obvious that curry isn't there yet. lebron is. he's the best player in the world and everyone knows that, but one of the things about that is how contagious it is. for jordan it was his unwillingness to let anyone play less than their best game. he was ultra competitive and would smack people (just ask steve kerr) if he didn't think they were taking things seriously enough. this is something that chris webber lacked as a leader; he was too much of a nice guy and so he never got the most out of peja (who should have been his #2). this, along with david stern's fixing of the 2002 series, and a knee injury meant that he never got the ring he deserved.
  • but i digress. lebron, seemingly through osmosis, has made his rag tag team compete at a level where they are playing with (and currently beating) the best team in the league. i don't know how he does it, but it's through his sheer will that these guys are stepping up and looking so good right now.
  • for lebron haters i know this is all difficult to digest, but he's a great player. what's more, he doesn't seem to have the issues of some other greats - he's not a cheater like kobe, he's not an asshole like jordan, he supports good causes, he seems to be a family man, he stays out of trouble. basically the worst things about him are that he went to miami and he's not terribly well-educated. on the court he cries too much when he doesn't get calls.
  • okay the cavs are up 20 now. lebron just blocked a shot. gets the ball and drives to the hoop, draws attention and dishes it to the center (whose name i've forgotten) for a dunk. great play.
  • when this delladedova (can't even remember his name) guy is shutting down the mvp it means the mvp isn't quite ready for the throne yet. curry is a great player, probably the best shooter in the league, but he's just not at the same level as nowitzski or lebron or duncan or other guys who are hardened by multiple deep trips in the playoffs. he'll get there. i think they should trade thompson for a good veteran and a first round pick.
  • 9 minutes left and the warriors are down by only 6. great game. the warriors are so deep. they have barbosa, lee, iguodala, curry and thompson in right now. they run 10-11 deep. i can't honestly remember a team doing that in the finals, or even in the playoffs except for trash time. kerr is unusual in that way, though he also has the players to do it. you have the starting 5, plus another 4 guys behind them who were all starters at one point. livingston, lee, iguodala, barbosa. speights and ezeli also get minutes. pretty crazy stuff when you consider that many championship teams play 7-8 guys.
  • cavs pulled it out. curry had a great 4th quarter, but had at least 3 turnovers - 2 of which were critical. lebron had one big 3 and several made free throws down the stretch to clinch it. i think it's good news for curry, though, because this may have gotten him back in the game mentally after two lackluster games. i expect a 30 point game from him on thursday.
  • everyone wants the star of the team to take over so they kept calling for lebron to isolate and do his thing. i actually disagree with this in his case. he's actually a better facilitator than he is one on one. he had a great game, but he had 20 missed shots. to a certain extent those misses lead to opportunities for his teammates, but not when he settles for jumpers. missing shots on double teams is fine because you get a lot of offensive rebounds. missing shots when you settle for a fade away is bad. still had 40 points and two assists shy of a triple double. the numbers are ridiculous, but they have to be considering the lack of firepower the cavs have now. late in the game i think lebron has to look to drive to the bucket and dish if he gets the double team.
  • kerr made a mistake by taking iguodala off lebron. he's been the most effective defender on him this series. in the first three quarters he was making some really good shots on good defense. you just have to live with that when it happens.
  • great game. great series.w


    • 6/9/15 (17:34)

  • two OT games in a row. cleveland has heart and their defense is keeping them in these games despite not having the offense of golden state. great series so far.
  • now that i'm a parent this kind of trashy walmart parenting has a special place in my heart. fucking depressing.


    • 6/6/15 (09:28)

  • delivery date has been moved up from 6/24 to 6/22. we liked the 24th better, but it's the 22nd and there's not much that can be done about it now. planning a c section doesn't feel great, but the doctor agreed that it was the best idea since meryl didn't go into labor naturally even 2 weeks after the due date and didn't respond to the labor inducing medication either. wonder what would have happened 200 years ago.
  • been busy as usual. got a big-ish tile job that i need to wrap up before the birth. i'm doing a shower curb and a hearth area and overseeing a countertop installation in the kitchen. i'll also have to do the plumbing for that.
  • going to try to take as much of july off as possible.
  • having two kids seems like a big jump. going from 2 to 3 doesn't seem like it would be as big a deal. meryl thinks being outnumbered is tough, but i think the toughest thing is going from 1 to 2 because then you are less likely to get a break.

    •  

     

    5/31/15 (13:11)

  • this cold has been lingering and really slowing me down lately. ugh.


    • 5/25/15 (17:20)

  • been meaning to say that the warriors are going to go all the way this year. didn't think much of houston on paper and that's proving to be true. cleveland won't be much harder, especially without kevin love. they're just too deep and talented and this is kind of a down year in the nba as the old guard is gone and things are shifting.


    • 5/13/15 (20:15)

  • the first couple years of fatherhood have been challenging at times. rewarding, but plenty of frustration. i find it mostly comes from an inability to communicate. but that's changing lately as zoe is really good at understanding things and talking in half sentences. i feel like it's only going to get better from here on out. i'm looking forward to teaching her and merritt how to do things around the house and watching certain films with them for the first time. i often have the feeling of wanting to listen to albums or see films for the first time again. of course you can never do that, but the closest you can get is to watch a film with someone else who hasn't ever seen it before.
  • classic example of why the city of berkeley sucks and liberal overreach: there's a new law being planned to ban cigarette sales with 1000' feet of any schools. i hate cigarettes, i've never smoked them, i think they're disgusting. i was just in vegas and it was awful being in casinos that still allow people to smoke inside. all that said, there's a (flawed) philosophy behind a proposal like this that suggests that you can legislate good behavior and good parenting. if kids want this stuff, they're going to get it. banning it for sale near schools is beyond foolish. is the theory that these shops are selling them to kids? is the theory that the kids access these cigarettes via osmosis because they're nearby? this law would help no one and would essentially outlaw the sale of cigarettes in the city. if that's the goal then let the people vote on it in those words, rather than trying to couch it in terms that are supposedly about helping kids.
  • heard orrin hatch on the newshour today talking about the trans pacific partnership. he sounded like a senile old man. what was even more funny than his nonsensical ramblings, though, was his invoking the same logic that obamacare supporters used when trying to get that passed. he basically said "we have to pass the bill to see what's in it." this is the same crap we heard about obamacare. say what you will about obamacare or the trans pacific partnership or anything else, the idea that we need to pass something in order for it to be talked about openly with real knowledge (not speculation) is ridiculous. thankfully elizabeth warren is holding down the fort while the democrats are (mostly) out to lunch.
  • skim coat/paint job last week ended up going pretty well once i finished. didn't go as well as planned, but got a great tool package out of it along with some wages so it certainly wasn't a loss. also learned a thing or two about a thing or two. would like to get more of those jobs, though they are tough on the body (wrist and back, especially).
  • basically all the big money jobs are tough on my body in one way or another. wish i was in better shape, but at the end of the day i don't usually feel like working out more than i have already throughout the day. when you read about how to keep your knees in good shape they say that you should do 20 squats every night or whatever. does that still apply if you do 50 squats throughout the day?


    • 5/11/15 (19:36)

  • vegas was pretty good. i've always hated vegas, but it was good to get away and have plenty to do. we took in a couple shows and did a lot of people watching and eating at nice places. it's the kind of place that makes you think about the best and worst of humanity. also interesting to find that basically three companies own the entire strip. not sure i had ever learned that, but it was suspicious that there was so much cross promotion between the casinos. i thought something about that was fishy so i looked into it and sure enough it's mgm (they own more than half the rooms alone) and caesars that own basically all the hotels you've heard of. each casino isn't its own business, it's just another brand within the corporate family. like proctor and gamble owns half the brands in most homes. so it's more of a cartel than ever. gotta love america.
  • family took care of zoe so that was nice. she's been a really good girl the last month or so. she had a rough patch, but is back to being cooperative and helpful. today she helped me inflate the tires on my table saw stand.
  • got paid to watch a show that may be coming out on NBC this year. it was a crappy celebrity contest like the voice meets dancing with the stars or something. hosted by marlon wayans. i wouldn't recommend it unless you're brain dead enough to like that kind of stuff; in which case you'd love this. i'd say you couldn't pay me to watch it, but i already made $20 to do just that so...
  • back to the grind today. 4 jobs and a couple stops. plenty going on as usual.


    • 5/2/15 (18:05)

  • in the middle of a long stretch of work days. a couple of big jobs going on. one starts tomorrow skim coating a bedroom, trimming it out and then painting. the skim coat takes so long to dry and that's the thing that has me most worried because i have to get it done by thursday.
  • we leave for our anniversary, honeymoon type thing thursday night and come back sunday. it'll be nice to have a vacation after working non stop for a couple long weeks.

    • i think the clintons have a trust problem at this point. everyone knows that hilary would do a good job as president, but do we trust her to do the job without helping herself and her friends too much along the way? can she deliver on the clinton legacy of a strong economy? does that outweigh the trickle of low level scandals that will probably happen under her administration?

    4/29/15 (20:21)

  • zoe has been doing better lately which has been nice. we let her watch a bit of willy wonka or cinderella and it seems to calm her down a bit and give her something to focus on instead of bouncing from thing to thing like a crazy person.
  • i don't have much of a problem with GMOs, but i don't see any good argument for not requiring that they be labeled in some way. people deserve to have information like that even if 90% of scientists believe that GMOs are safe for human consumption. it is kind of funny that when scientists mostly believe something like that liberals will ignore it and when scientists mostly believe that we're to blame for global warming conservatives will ignore it. and then there's the anti-vaccination issue which seems a bit split, but mostly a liberal cause. zoe has gotten all her recommended vaccinations and will continue to do so, but there are some vaccinations that i do question a bit; like chicken pox. almost everyone of my generation got it and was uncomfortable for a while and then they got over it. it's not a horrible disease and it doesn't really kill people (1 in 60k) so i'm not so sure that vaccination is necessary. but i'm not going to fight it either.
  • it's really just humorous how different people get blinded by their fears. they'll lean on science when it suits them and dismiss it other times.
  • got a couple of bigger jobs in the pipeline. texturing, trimming out and painting a room is one job. the other job is turning a condo with paint, drywall patches, and a couple little things.
  • right now the area is experiencing a pretty good boom. lots of money flowing around and everyone is busy. we try to hire other trades for clients now and then and getting anyone to call back takes effort. hopefully our emphasis on the basics of customer service will pay off when things cool down.
  • if we have another bush v. clinton race it's going to be killer tv. other than that it'll be awful.
  • i think about 80% of my berkeley customers drive volvos.


    • 4/22/15 (19:16)

  • been slammed lately with work. i guess tax season and spring break are over so everyone is back to getting things done around the house.
  • clinton is clearly the most qualified candidate for president since...i don't know when. she's been white house adjacent for about 12 years, she's been a senator, etc. she's the clear pick here when it comes to experience. her problem is that she's a shill for wall street and only talks a good game because she knows it'll help keep warren et al from running hard against her. overall she's a centrist and that makes it tough for someone like me to vote for her. her record on wall street reform, the iraq vote, foreign policy views and a few other things are all worrisome and basically in line with the clinton doctrine. i think she'd do a fine job in most circumstances. the problem with any democrat, though, is the republican congress which is basically holding everything hostage. pretty pathetic situation all around.
  • zoe is kind of obsessed with willy wonka and cinderella lately. we limit her screen time, but she's got a great memory and definitely asks for it.


    • 4/16/15 (15:54)

  • zoe has been real cute lately. she's putting together sentences (sorta) and trying more and more to have a conversation. pretty funny kid.


    • 4/13/15 (14:16)

  • still think about my old track friend philip hentell from time to time. we were good friends for a few years and didn't talk much once we went off to college. then he committed suicide. pretty sad story and here's part of it (in the comments section) memorialized on the internet. despite the nature of the post and the fact that he used his real name, he was actually one of the smarter guys i've known.


    • 4/8/15 (8:48)

  • been a little slower than usual which is nice especially since i've been sick lately.
  • trying to think about the next step in my career. doing little stuff is nice enough, but i'm already wondering how long i can do this.

    • changed cell carriers.
     

    3/28/15 (09:25)

  • things have been tough lately. zoe has way too much energy for us and is a typical self-centered, live in the moment 2 year old. kids are the best and worst of humanity. one minute they're hugging a sad stranger and telling you they love you, and the next moment they're laughing as they kick you in the face. hilarious!
  • i basically don't watch movies anymore. i don't have time to myself and meryl and i mostly just watch tv now. on the one hand this is depressing. on the other it's sorta good timing because so many movies these days are crap relatively speaking. there's only so much talent out there and a lot of it has moved to tv.
  • re: the serial podcast. been meaning to write about it for a while. i listened to it while it was coming out. at first it was pretty good. reminded me a lot of errol morris' documentaries. the thing about those, though, is that they're only 2 hours long. this was like 10 hours of waffling back and forth over the same little case. at some point you just have to stop mulling it all over and i think the lifespan for a show like that is 6 episodes, not 12. the narrator seemed like she tried to be fair, but i never thought for a second that she really thought that adnan was guilty. she feigned objectivity, but like most women she sees the best in people and wishes that we were all good people. not a bad quality, but a naive one. i don't know whether he did it or not, but focusing on adnan is like burying the lead to me. the lead is that jay, who we know had something to do with the murder, got away completely. that should have been a bigger part of the story. i guess that's the difference between the narrator and me. i'm trying to figure out why the guilty (at least of something, we know this 100%) guy gets off and she's trying to figure out if there's any chance that the guy who is in prison may not be guilty.
  • hopefully the next one is better.
  • the idea of having no regrets is kind of interesting. some people say that they're happy with where they are in life so they wouldn't do anything differently. as if changing any one thing that they regret would undo the happiness they currently have. it's an interesting and understandable position, but i don't necessarily agree with it.


    • 3/22/15 (09:43)

  • real estate market around here is bonkers lately. no contingencies all cash. people are going crazy and the tech money is driving a lot of it. being uber rich would be nice.
  • one of my worries when going out on my own is if i was going to have the desire to work when i didn't have a boss who needed me at work every day 8a-4p. turns out that worry was unfounded. i work more now than ever and i have a pretty tough time turning away work. i got two days off in a row this weekend, though, which is pretty nice.
  • march madness has been good so far because ucla has exceeded expectations. i care about them and the rest of the pac-12. i'd love to see kentucky lose as well. other than that i'm completely out of the loop.
  • been unsubscribing from podcasts lately. fresh air is the latest. trying to listen to music more because podcasts tend to be depressing and sorta the same old thing over and over again (oddly). if you know any great ones, though, i'm open to it.


    • 3/16/15 (19:38)

  • had a good little gate/fence build today. worst part of it was lugging the concrete and wood and tools up the hill. best part of it was the big tip and lunch with meryl.
  • most of the jobs i've taken lately have been pretty good. i feel like i'm getting into the swing of things. i'm not killing myself with too many jobs in a day, jobs are going pretty well now that i have more experience and my truck is all set up, and i've learned to pass on certain kinds of jobs.
  • taxes took a huge chunk out of our savings and it hurts to write a big check at the end of the year instead of it automatically being taken out of your biweekly check. we were smart enough to put aside money every time we got paid so we had the money in savings, but now we don't any more. good to know what we paid, too, because now we can plan better for the future. we really didn't know how much the deductions and everything else were going to bring down the tax load.
  • haven't paid any attention to ncaa basketball this year. ucla is in, barely. ky looks unstoppable. that's about all i know.
  • finished up our biggest single job ever last week. it was the biggest single check we've ever gotten. there are good and bad things about jobs of that size and that many moving parts. a lot of ways to approach that stuff as well. some contractors kill you on the back end with the inevitable change orders. we did the opposite by pricing the change orders hourly at a reduced rate. in hindsight i should have kept the change orders hourly at the usual rate because of the opportunity cost. she ended up adding quite a bit, which was probably a good move on her part since she had me locked in at a lower rate. i was thinking the change orders would be more along the lines of finding rot behind the walls and such, but it turned out that it was more about me doing stuff she didn't want to do or didn't want the electrician to do. haven't added up all the hours yet to see how profitable it was, but i'm not complaining.
  • trying to get as much work in as i can while merritt is still in the belly. once she comes out it will be nice to spend some time with the family and i'm sure i'll be needed more around the house. for some reason self-employed people pay state income taxes, but we don't pay into disability so neither of us is eligible for the weeks of paid family leave that everyone else gets. not sure why it's separate, but that's the story i've heard so we don't get any money. that will hurt quite a bit.


    • 3/10/15 (15:19)

  • ace hardware on foothill went out of business and had an auction for their remaining stock. i bid on a lot of stuff, but only won one section of items. got a bunch of plumbing and toilet repair stuff for under $40. definitely worth it, but wish i had won a few more sections of stuff.
  • zoe has been a handful lately. the terrible twos start around a year and a half and zoe certainly has been terrible at times. we've tried different things, but nothing has worked very well. i think my go to tactic is to ignore her when she's being a pill. kind of tough to do, though. the literature gives a variety of suggestions, but when it comes to a lot of that stuff i think you just have to go with your instinct.

    • speaking of which, is it really any surprise that peanut allergies are overblown and can be largely avoided through early introduction? a lot of these allergies are crap and more a sign of over-protective parents and over-sensitive doctors than anything biological. if it were up to me my kids would be exposed to shellfish and peanuts and honey and everything else pretty early on. we took the doctor's advice on no honey until 1 year, but i really don't see a little taste of these things here or there making kids all that sick and we've now seen what it does when we shield them from everything. i basically apply this logic to the rest of parenting as well. the real world is going to smack these kids in the face eventually, so i'd rather they get a small taste of it while they're young.

    2/26/15 (18:15)

  • something like a third of californians are for rationing water to deal with the drought. that sounds about right and i'm sorta one of them. but as i age i look at this kind of draconian government measure as inelegant and excessively old-fashioned. we're a state of innovators, where is the innovation in simply saying a household can only use so much water? it's not entirely american either. a more american way of approaching it would be to give a report on the people in your neighborhood who opt in to a per person competition to see who uses the least amount of water. i'd be more motivated to save water if i knew others were doing it, especially if they were doing it better than i. they've already proved that this kind of peer pressure is successful in reducing water consumption, why not make it state-wide? how about waterless wednesdays in the vein of meatless mondays, etc. during world war 1?


    • 2/22/15 (09:04)

  • some black lives matter group shut down home depot in emeryville yesterday. apparently a woman stole something from there and fled when the police were called. then she pulled a gun and was killed. not sure why shutting down home depot with half demonstration, half performance art was necessary, but it annoyed the hell out of me. quite the circus.
  • if it's not on the first page of google then i'm probably not going to find it.
  • allergies are starting already for me. last year it was mid-march and now it's mid-february. weather is part of that, but my allergies seem to worsen every year.


    • 2/12/15 (08:28)

  • the big project deadline is going to get moved back. good news and bad news. gives me more breathing room, but it's getting moved back because she added more work. this is par for the course. customer starts something and then starts thinking about other options and expands the scope. then the timeline and budget expand. if they're rational humans they understand the latter part of that, some don't. so i made it abundantly clear and we're moving forward with more work and all that it entails.
  • if i could clone myself then i'd still be busy. times like this make me want a partner who can help in the field. problem is that i only need that help on occasion so hiring an employee isn't really an option. partnering with another handyman who is established doesn't make sense either because if they're good then they probably have the same problem i have. best situation would be to have a young person with some tools and a car who wants to work a couple days a week, but doesn't need full-time income right away. my old bosses sons are as close to that as i have. one of them is really good, but has trouble showing up on time and has a job already. the other is reliable, but not as good in the field.

    •  

     

    2/10/15 (19:55)

  • busy day today. early day at saul's. then installed a security gate for someone. then onto a big project we got last week. the project is for someone who just bought a house in alameda. tile floor/tub surround in bathroom, paint entire interior, new baseboards, new bathroom fan, trim plumbing, a bunch of drywall repairs and any little things that might come up between now and move in date. we have until the end of the month. our tile guy is doing the tile, but i did the demo and the framing around the new tub (which was there when we got the job). the biggest thing about it is the time crunch.
  • this project is going on at the same time that i have two homes going on the market for two real estate agents. i have a bunch of little things to do for them like baseboard, lights, closet doors, etc. then there's the alumni house, new jobs (three people called in the last two days), etc. that are on the calendar between now and the end of the month. worked sunday and will probably have a couple more weekends or nights with some work. should be a good month financially, though. things are just crazy busy right now. it's no longer the lull after the end of the new year. people are ready to sell their homes and address their "honey-do" lists. the stock market is up so they feel like they have money to spend and they're spending it.
  • going to sacramento tomorrow to check out one of the burrito spots on the 538 list. this was planned when things were slow two weeks ago, but i didn't want to cancel it because if i cancel things just because i'm busy then i'll never do them.
  • the super bowl was super depressing. seattle was the better team and it took a perfect play to beat them. as soon as it happened i had two thoughts - i thought it was bobbled and dropped at first. then my second thought was that it was a bad play call. when they got down to the goal line my first thought was to give it to lynch four times, if necessary. then i rethought it and said maybe they should go play action on first down. they ran it and got a few yards and then passed it on the slant. i've watched the play several times (though not as many as the 4th and 2 call to lendale white in 2006) and i actually think it was a good playcall, but a perfect defensive play. he just made the perfect play for that situation. i honestly believe that 90-95% of the time that would end up incomplete or a TD. it was rough to handle since i've basically been a seahawks fan since alex smith went to KC, but i'm at peace with the playcall.

    • brady wasn't the mvp. 2 ints and he didn't make the most important play of the game. i think the qb gets the mvp far too often in the super bowl. my vote would have been for butler. brady knows this which is why he gave him the truck.
     

    1/29/15 (09:28)

  • like two days after saying business was slow i got three calls and a couple emails. funny how that works out. now i'm an average level of busy again.
  • the whole house is sick. i've been popping cold-eeze and it seems to have helped, but definitely not 100%. zoe is an inspiration, though, as she is dripping snot from her nose and coughing while running around and having fun. she's amazing. not sure how kids are able to do it.

    •  

     

    1/19/15 (10:19)

  • business is slower these days. makes me a bit worried. that's one killer about this job is you have to take it on faith that more work will come along. you never know if tomorrow you'll get 3 calls or next week you won't get any. one cure for this is good marketing. we don't do much of that. the last two years we've sent out cards to our customers at the beginning of the year just as a way of reminding them that we're there. other than that we just hope work comes to us. so far it's worked out okay.
  • that seahawks/packers game was pretty epic. seahawks had a horrible first quarter/half. rodgers didn't have a very good game and packers' defense just got rolled over in the 4th. pete calling the fake fg was a ballsy call, but it worked so it's genius. the onside kick that actually worked was more about the packers guy not getting the ball than anything else, but jeez what a big play. then they ended the game in OT with the two longest plays of the game and made it look easy. no matter what i was going to be rooting for the nfc over the afc, but now that it's the patriots it makes it an even better match up. if carroll gets another superbowl win does that make him a hall of famer already? didn't have much of an nfl career before his stint with the seahawks, but if he wins two and then sort of fades away over the next couple years i wonder if that's enough to get him in as a coach. winning two is a big deal so i'd say yes, but there usually seems to be a preference for guys who have been in the league a long time as well.
  • speaking of HOF. why didn't schilling get in when smoltz did? smoltz was a great reliever as well as a starter so that definitely gives him an edge in my mind. that versatility and his excellence in that new role, late in his career, are worthy of mention. but schilling getting snubbed again doesn't make all that much sense to me. he was one of the best of his generation and his numbers reflect that.
  • can we admit finally that peyton manning isn't god's gift to the qb position? i said from the very beginning that i didn't think he'd win a SB. i felt he was very similar to dan marino - great numbers, but won't win the big game. his td% in the regular season is 5.9, in the playoffs it's 4.1. regular season qb rating is 95.5 and playoff rating is 88.5. those can be explained by the playoffs being tougher for offenses, though. the worst of it is that he just can't win in the playoffs. 9 years he's had a 0-1 record in the playoffs. he's been to the sb 3 times and lost 2 of them; he threw a pick 6 in those two losses as well. he's 11-13 in the playoffs overall. in his one superbowl victory he was MVP, but his stats in that game were relatively pathetic. i looked at the last few superbowl mvps and their stats:
  • flacco 287 yd, 3 td, 0 int.
  • eli manning (2nd) 297 yd, 1 td, 0 int.
  • rodgers 304 yd, 3 td, 0 int.
  • brees 288 yd, 2 td, 0 int.
  • eli manning (1st) 255 yd, 2 td, 1 int.
  • brady (2004) 354 yd, 3 td, 1 int.
  • peyton manning 247 yd, 1 td, 1 int.
  • a few things to note: peyton had the fewest yards of any qb since brady in 2003 to win MVP. he's one of 3 qbs in 10 years to throw an INT and still get the MVP. statistically speaking his performance was the worst of the last 10 years. eli's performance in 2008 was almost as bad (numbers-wise) but remember that eli faced an 18-0 patriots team that year and threw one of the most important throws in SB history. eli's second sb win wasn't spectacular either, but he had more yards, completed 75% of his throws and came back in the 4th quarter, so he had a very solid performance.
  • so, peyton is a very good regular season performer in that he puts up nice fantasy football numbers. but when winning is the most important thing and people are their most focused and competitive, he takes a step backwards. if i had a vote, i wouldn't vote for him in the HOF during the first round - just to make a point.
  • speaking of which...joe namath in SB3 is one of the most pathetic HOFers ever. the fact that he won MVP with a 206 yard, 0 TD performance is just ridiculous. meanwhile his running back had 121 yards, 1 TD running and 40 receiving, and he got snubbed. somehow namath won MVP - the only qb to ever do it without scoring. pathetic drunk narcissist.

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    1/15/15 (14:07)

  • romney thinking about running. dumb idea. won't win.


    • 1/10/15 (10:54)

  • going to try to hit up some of the places on the 538 best burrito list. went to el farolito last week and liked it. very solid burrito. i had the carne asada super burrito. taqueria cancun is next.
  • been in business 100% for ourselves for 7 months now which means we have a good amount of time to look at expenses and income and project for next year and see where prices need to be and all that. did some analysis and it looks like prices are basically perfect. i charge 75 for the first hour and 60 after that. prices should be 63/hr according to our expenses and how much i want to work (48 weeks a year, 5 days a week, 30 billable hours a week). those are conservative numbers and i can always work more. 6 hours a day usually works out about right. some days i'll work a full day, other days i'll only be able to bill a couple hours because they're smaller jobs or i have a lot of stuff to pick up, take to the dump, accounting to do, travel time, etc. i tend to work more than 5 days a week, but the goal is to work only 5. today's a saturday, for example, but i have two jobs. i worked the last two saturdays as well. the 48 weeks a year is theoretically so we can go on vacation, but it really is equally about covering days where i think i'll have a job but it falls through (illness, scheduling problems, etc.).
  • ideally i'll get more jobs that take up a day or two and will be able to bid them in a way where i make a bit more than i would if i were doing it hourly. having a bunch of little 1-3 hour jobs can be nice, but it's probably not where the money is. i like doing them, but i also like doing the 1 day jobs like blowing in insulation in an attic. that's a profitable job and one that's relatively stress free. organization jobs are also like that. one day, both meryl and i on site, and a decent amount of profit for a job that is quite easy for me at this point.
  • it'll be another month or so until i can see how the tax situation shakes out. with the alumni house i was grossing about 40k/yr. add matching 403b (no longer offerred because they're in financial trouble), platinum level benefits and sick/vacation days and the total compensation was probably close to 60k/yr, minus like 1k/yr for parking. with this new job i will be above that, but we'll see by how much after taxes are done. being able to write off mileage is a definite advantage.

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    1/5/15 (10:46)

  • light day today. the rest of the week is going to be pretty busy though.
  • OR killed FSU. when i saw FSU's last game against GA tech i knew they couldn't handle OR. their run defense is just so shoddy. if they were in the pac-12 they would have had 3 losses and wouldn't have been a contender. too bad for baylor, or tcu.
  • going to sf today to check out a job for meryl's brother. selling a condo there and the unit above is leaking. looking forward to trying a new burrito place out there. other than that, f sf.


    • 1/1/15 (12:00)

  • a little work today, but mostly a day off. half a day yesterday. will be a full day tomorrow. not sure how bad saturday will be. was sick early this week so plenty to do. not having sick days is kind of a downer.
  • will send out first round of tax paperwork tomorrow. hope to get that crap done as soon as possible so we know how things settle out.
  • alabama has their best offense under nick saban this year. of course this makes perfect sense since kiffin is the coordinator. i've said for a while that he's a very good coordinator; not much of a head coach though. talked with my dad about this a lot while he was at usc. the assumption of most guys seems to be that you work your way up from position coach to coordinator to head coach. but why? some people are just better as coordinators and should remain in that position. not every CFO should be a CEO. different skills. anyway, hopefully kiffin figures out that he's an OC not a HC. and hopefully he leaves the SEC. i don't think they can stand that much offense anyway.
  • i have AL losing to OR in the final.

    • good year in the bowls for pac-12. AZ lost, but otherwise it's been a sweep. OR has to take care of business. i don't see FSU stopping their run game with their crappy run defense. they have speed, though, and that's the great equalizer.