Friday, November 14, 2008

Lots of Money Poorly Spent

So people and churches, outside of California, felt that Prop 8's failure was so dangerous, or non-religious, or too Christian, or something, that they spent more than $9 million dollars on the ballot measure.

I assume that most churches and church-going people give money to their church's causes in order to help people. While I don't know exactly what happened to that $9 million, I do know of some ways that you could spend much less than that, and actually help people. Here are some examples:
  • $60 buys a flock of chicks, ducks, and goslings that will grow up to provide eggs
  • $120 buys a sheep that can provide wool to a village, not to mention lambs (a goat is also $120) 
  • $500 buys a milk cow that can provide enough milk for a family and neighbors, for years!

Maybe I'm thinking too small here; I mean, $9 million is a lot of money. How about this:
  • $1500 buys Heifer International's "Joy to the World" collection: two sheep, four goats, a heifer, and two llamas
  • $5000 buys the "Gift Ark:" 15 pairs (that's 30 animals), including two water buffalo, sheep, cows, oxen, ... 

I think for $9 million, probably Heifer International would send everything anyone needs. Instead, that money went to put stupid, lying, ads on television, successfully scaring old people into thinking that bad things would happen if Prop 8 failed.

Well, maybe you out-of-state folks are so rich that this isn't that much money for you. I'm hopeful that you will send some much needed money to people who actually need it, especially because I can't any longer. The donations I used to make to help poor villages, hungry kids, and equipment for schools; now instead I have to send to repeal Prop 8. But obviously you guys are rich enough, I'm sure you can help those kids out.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Your Church Doesn’t Want Me To...

I understand that your church doesn’t want me to be married. Fortunately, I don’t want your church to marry me.

However, if we (California) allow your church to make this decision, then what is the next right your church will eliminate?
Here is a list of rules that some churches have:
* Abortions not allowed
* Divorces not allowed
* Contraception not allowed
* Follow the “Ten Commandments
* Follow the “Five Pillars of Islam
* Obey the “Seven Laws of Noah”
* Don’t drink alcohol (ever, or on certain days)
* Don’t drink caffeine
* Don’t eat pork

I can think of lots of rules that different churches may have. The thought that these rules can become, or already are, laws is horrifying. The creators of the United States of America, fortunately, thought this was so important that they actually wrote it into our Constitution (you can read that here) . I’m pretty sure this is exactly what they were talking about.

When you vote on November 4, think of how many laws you want written by a church. Then, think of all the laws that could be written by someone else's church. Vote No to laws from churches. Vote No on Prop 8.

The State’s Interest in Marriage

I’ve been thinking a lot about California’s Proposition 8, which would amend our state Constitution (the Constitution!) to remove the right for some people to marry. Aside from all the scare tactics by the supporters, which are ridiculous given the rights already protected by our Federal Constitution, here’s one way I think Prop 8 is wrong.

First of all, and fundamentally, the State (any state) should not have an interest in marriage. If you think the state does have an interest, then you should ask why. There are only two reasons I can think of that a state would want to be involved in something as personal as this:
1. the State wants to collect revenue by taxing licenses; and
2. the State wants to create more citizens, which increases its tax base
In the case of #2, then it follows that the State would then disallow the prevention of conception, as was denied several years ago in the case of Griswold v. Connecticut.

So, it follows that, if the State gets involved in regulating marriage, then here’s what else it should do, according to the State’s goal of increasing citizens:
* outlaw contraception
* outlaw divorce
* outlaw abortions
* outlaw procedures to decrease or eliminate fertility

I also am assuming that, if parents have divorced already, they probably will have to resume living together in order to help raise the kids, and create more. While this sounds pretty extreme, it is pretty close to the plot of the Handmaid’s Tale .

When you vote tomorrow, think of how much you want the State involved in your life, and your life decisions. If you don’t think it sounds like a good idea, then you should vote no on Prop 8.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

One Last Problem to Fix...

Many folks have some relatively simple issue at home that they need to resolve in order to work productively from home. Some examples of this might be:
* get a better desk chair
* improve lighting
* computer needs more memory, or bigger hard drive
* need a better display, display stand, or second display

Gas prices have risen 14% over the last month alone, in California. I think this "pain point" has finally gotten some folks to resolve that one last problem, and now are able to work productively at home!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

How to Become a Black Box Worker

or, perhaps a more formal name, "Modular Nomadic Worker." Sun Microsystems has a product called the Sun Modular Datacenter, also called the "Black Box." You can read more about it here. But basically, it's a complete data center in a box (container, really)! Just add power, water, and Internet, and it's good to go.

I started thinking about how "modular" I've become, with my smart iPhone and laptop plus wifi or 3G card, and I realized how similar I am to the Black Box data center. Just drop me anywhere with my (small) laptop bag and phone, and I am a "fully functioning" worker!

Here are the things I have that enable me to work everywhere:
* cell phone/ smartphone: iPhone (not yet 3G)
* bluetooth headset: Aliph Jawbone (red!)
* broadband card: Sierra Wireless 881 3G USB w/unlimited domestic plan
* laptop: MacBook Pro 17"
* webcam: built-in iSight
* wifi: Starbucks card for 2 hours free, plus possible free AT&T broadband customer at AT&T hotspots?, obviously also at home and in the office

With these tools, I'm able to work from wherever I am, whether it be from home, a conference, an airport, while travelling in my motorhome, or even in the office! I answer my phone and emails, and participate in desktop video conferences (using iChat AV and MeBeam), and even sometimes meet in Second Life. Rather than wondering where I am, my boss can just always find me.

I think I really am living in the Snow Crash metaverse now!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Mario Kart Room with Friends

Last night, six of us from our flyball club went online with our Wii's to play Mario Kart. Six "drivers," three Wii's, one racetrack!! What a blast! 

Even though everyone was better than me, and I don't think I won any races, it was much more fun getting knocked over the cliff, or blown up, by someone I know, rather than a stranger!

Thanks, Nintendo!

Friday, April 25, 2008

Travelling Workplace, Part 2


This weekend, we had another interesting traveling workplace experience. We were going camping at Topaz Lake in Nevada, so we decided to drive up on Thursday evening. Usually traffic is bad leaving the Bay Area that we thought it would take us several hours altogether to make it there, but we just thought that we would stop when we were tired of driving and spend the night in the motor home.

Instead, traffic was so light that we wound up making it all the way to the campground in only five hours, so we thought great, we can work from the campground tomorrow. However, shortly before my 9am meeting we realized that not only did we not have Internet service, we didn't even have cell phones service! Around 8:15 we battened down the motorhome and the dogs, and started to drive back towards civilization. So much for my hope of working while overlooking a scenic campground.

While we were able to get cell service just a few miles out of the campground, we needed to find a place to stay for the day in our traveling office. It took us about half an hour to find an open parking lot. We cut it a little close; actually I started the first few minutes of my video conference using my 3G laptop card, while Dawn was still trying to find a place to park. The people on my video meeting could tell that we were still driving, but they just asked whether or not *I* was driving!

So instead of overlooking a peaceful lake while we were working on Friday, we sat in that the drug store parking lot all day long. Fortunately, there was a Starbucks! Although it didn't work out quite like I'd planned, I was still able to participate in all of my meetings and conferences. I was even able to log into and use Second Life, which really surprised me that I had that much bandwidth.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Travelling Workplace, Part 1

I saw this article on cnn.com today:
Next phase of working at home: Leaving home 

As part of the discussion on where people are working, right now at this very moment I'm sitting in the parking lot of a restaurant in Davis, working from my motorhome. I'm using a high-speed Internet card for my laptop (getting 3G); here's what speakeasy.net  said about my current connection:
  • Download Speed: 1640 kbps (205 KB/sec transfer rate)
  • Upload Speed: 967 kbps (120.9 KB/sec transfer rate)


My work phone line is forwarded to my cell phone, and I was even able to video chat with a co-worker a little while ago.



Also, speaking of "co-working," check out this place:
Cubes and Crayons

This is where I think the growth in workplaces will happen; specialized work places where people, who can actually work from anywhere, but have certain specific "life needs," like child or elder care, or even are looking for a specialized work place, like one optimized for graphics design, writing, conference calls, etc. 

Or where "your co-workers for today" are specially picked, like for dba's, proof-readers, communications specialists, etc.

Anyway, just random Friday thoughts... have a good weekend!


Monday, February 25, 2008

Pac-10 Women's Basketball

Stanford played Cal Saturday at Haas Pavilion. The announced attendance was 10,525! I hadn't been to a Cal game since they played in the old gym, so this was just amazing! The basketball was great and close the whole time; I was pretty sure they were going to overtime. I think I heard there were ten lead changes or something like that.

They announced that the crowd set an all-time record for a game with two Pac-10 women's teams. Last month, Cal's men's game vs. Stanford at Haas had fewer people. I heard that Cal's men have had only one bigger crowd this season, and that the Cal women players were wondering if they had somehow attracted the men's fans. Maples is much smaller; while I'm pretty sure the Stanford-Tennessee game was sold out, it still would only have been about 7500 attendance.

Of course, the ref's drove me so crazy that I thought if it did go to overtime, Stanford have to bring the injured players out since all the others would have fouled out. Crutches and boots and all... Maybe it would have been easier to just tell all the Stanford players they were going to start with 2 fouls each!

But even on the other side, looking at the TiVo replay, Lawson-Gray didn't travel. But Roz did a great job defending her; it could be a defense clinic video. Cal played so much better than the last time at Maples.

The only other games I've been to that were even close to this experience were Final Four games. The crowds are even bigger, and there certainly is a lot more merchandise for sale. But this was even better (and louder), since everyone in Haas was only rooting for those two teams. The Final Four fans who either come via the lottery or with the two teams who were already knocked out are a lot more polite in their cheering than those whose teams are still fighting.

(Final Four aside: I quit buying my tickets via the lottery; I either sat in the last row, with a ton of UConn fans, or both. And it's no fun to sit with UConn fans if you aren't one. I'm not sure it's even fun if you are! Now I just hope that Stanford makes it, and then I try to buy my ticket, and travel arrangements, through them. Those seats, and the flight, are a lot more fun.)

I also saw what a nice kid's room they had (carpet and everything) in the new gym, so the kids could make signs and get their faces painted, although I noticed that the Cardinal fans had to be a little creative with the standard bear paw print. ;)

I had a few Cal friends sitting on the opposite side of the gym. It was amazing that, with that many people there, I could still see them pretty well. Good job, Cal, I can't wait until we meet you again in the Pac-10 tournament!

Saturday, February 23, 2008

One Sport Gal

Today I realized I'm really only a one sport gal. I don't mean I just follow one sport; rather, I really only like one of each kind. Here's what I mean:

Sport I Participate In: Flyball
I have three terriers, and we race for the Bay Racers Flyball Club.

College Sport: Women's Basketball
More specifically, Stanford Women's Basketball, but we go to and watch as much Div 1 as we can. Today we had a great time with over 10,000 of our closest friends watching Stanford & Cal duke it out for the Pac-10 title.

Pro Sport: Bicycle Road Racing, specifically Grand Tours
Although we have enjoyed watching the Tour de France, every year the organizers make it harder to watch by disqualifying more and more riders and teams. But, earlier this week we went to Stage 3 of the Tour of California, and had a blast. Maybe I'll use those three weeks in July for something else.

http://gallery.mac.com/dianafnscp#100144

Friday, February 22, 2008

Teaching Your Height Dog to Get Measured

Real measuring wickets are expensive, and so rarely used they are hard to justify to purchase for even a large flyball club. However, here are the two things we have our club members do to teach their dogs to stand for measuring:

1) Home Training: Stand during Distractions (you don't have to do all of these things, but the more, the better! ;) ):
  • clicker train the dog to stand during distractions. I actually watch for (i.e., shape) the dog's big foot pad to touch the ground. I think that if you do that, the dog has to stand in a more relaxed position (vs. up on her toes), and also, if you adjust the foot position to get a good stance, they'll "push" it back down onto the ground when you let go.
  • after the dog learns how to do this, and will still do it even if you pet them or walk around, I eventually teach them to do this while standing next to a table leg. This gets them used to not only standing next to something upright, like the wicket, but also to stand in a particular location. 
  • also teach the dog to hold that position while you move a wire hanger or something similar over and above their body, including holding it like the crossbar of the wicket. Lower it down, move it back and forth across their back. Always click when their feet (foot really) is in the correct position, asking for longer & longer duration. Don't forget the "three D's" (distance, difficulty, distraction); that you've made the other two D's easier whenever you make one D harder. 

These exercises may sound kind of complicated, but if you have a clicker-trained dog and you are pretty good with the clicker, you can teach it pretty fast. I actually taught my last puppy just at dinner time; it took maybe 10 sessions? His hardest problem was his ticklish butt, but he was pretty determined to keep his feet flat on the floor!

2) Wicket Practice (this one's pretty easy to do, if you can come to Northern California, especially if the dog & handler have done at least some of the above):
at the big UC Davis Picnic Day play day in April, we set up a couple of "judges" (esp. bigger men) with the wicket, for people to bring their dogs up to learn to get measured. This is just for you to practice with a real wicket, and a stranger.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Flyball at the Cow Palace

This weekend my flyball club, Bay Racers, will be providing the entertainment at the big AKC Dog Show at the Cow Palace. This is the second biggest "benched" dog show in the country (benched means all the dogs need to stay on display, even after their class has finished, so you can see representatives of the breed, as well as talk to local breeders and breed clubs.

Here is information on the show. If you'd like to see video footage of us in previous years, you can check out the Bay Racers Flyball Club website.

A tv show on Fox Sports will be taping us on Saturday; more details as we learn them.
(edit) here's the video feature they did on us; I think they also have a slideshow.


Our demos are at 1 & 3pm both days, but we will be at our location all day both days. Check the big message boards within the Cow Palace to see our location.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Disneyland!

I really like going to Disneyland. I don't know why, but I do know I always have fun. In January, my club went to a flyball tournament in Irvine. That seemed close enough, and Monday was a holiday for me, so we decided to go. We had raced all weekend, so our dogs were happy to sleep in the motorhome. I was happy to go on Buzz Lightyear!



Can you see my Sorcerer's ears?