On the title sequence of Iraq news coverage:
[Referring to Iraqis being re-pariated from Jordan to fight for Saddam]: "Who are these men? Where are they going? You don't want to know. But you have to."
No I don't! I can change the channel. Stupid MSNBC. I wish the "news channels" would stop speculating and bringing so-called experts who have no better clue than me and you about what's going on in the war. Please stop reporting opinion poll numbers on topics like "do people think that the US military planners underestimated the resistance in Iraq." Of course people feel that way...because the media is leading people to these conclusions by focusing on this kind of bullshit news. Jeez!! What a load of dumbasses...

I love the look of Lomo but hate the cost of film. Luckily I snagged some actions for Photoshop that remake stark digi-cam images into Lomo-esque arty-warmth. I wouldn't mind getting an L-CA just to have the real deal though...
This is just a general rant about teams and work. And teamwork.
Teams seem to be created by some sort of organizational event that put people into working units and categorize them. This is the basis of a team. Or so I thought. I have learned in the past few months of working in a new environment that teams are not "organized" but result in trust and respect.
You see, my working conditions before were quite good. I had a great team that supported my efforts and I supported them. Out of this relationship and dynamic grew trust and friendship. In the end it made us a better team. We were above petty categorization and quantification of our time and effort. While we certainly kept track of our efforts, most of our willingness to work on something came out of the fact that we knew it was the right thing to do at the time. Our team, while small was recognized for being "magic". We solved problems that no one else could and we did it quickly. That was our calling card. In the end, other teams would drop the ball and it was our job to figure it out and complete it. We became a mini-developement/test/release team that was able to put out new releases faster and with greater quality than any real dev/test teams has been able to.
In the beginning of this year, our team was broken up. Due to some organizational/budgetary bullshit, I, along with two others from my team have been moved over to another division. The rest of the folk on our team stayed put. They did this with the expectation that our old team would function with us while we had a new set of responsibilities to deal with on our new team. They thought the magic would continue. Well, unfortunately, our new "team" doesn't feel like much of a team at all...more like just people who occupy the same part of a building and work on the same projects individually. One of the old team members has quit already. She was one of the hardest working and intelligent people I know. Proof that the new team sucks is that they'd let this person get away without any attempt to retain her. My friend told me she went to a lunch with them a while ago and no one talked to each other...how sad. My part of the new team isn't as bad but there are still major issues. I can live with them for now, but don't get me wrong, I'm looking where ever I can for some new employment. At any rate I don't find much friendship or trust in the new team. People seem to just do their thing without regard for each other. I don't seem much helping each other either. People here are more concerned with getting recognition for their part of the project to fill in their weekly micromanagement...err I mean status reports.
Enough ranting....the point is...people, trust, relationships make teams. Putting people into logical groupings for budgets is necessary I know, but it does not make a team. I'm already starting to develop relationships and trust for some of my new team members. Some is enough for now...but I don't thnk my new team will ever be a "team" in the meaning that I've come to know.
Anyone know of good jobs?
Finally Julia Demato goes home! Yay!! Ginger and I have been hating her since day one. I'm not sure if it's her bitchy stuck-upped-ness or her pretty flat boring performances...but I'm going to guess it's some combination of both.
What do you think about the American Idols? Who is going to win? (Hint: It's going to be Clay, Rueben, or Kimberly).

GM is calling transit riders "creeps and weirdos." Hey wait a minute, I ride public transit and I don't think I'm a creep. I may be a little bit weird, but I'm definitely not a creep...

Finally a chance to write...
This past weekend, Ginger and I went to Placerville and Tahoe. Where's Placerville? Scott tells me that if I tell everyone it's the stop light on the freeway before you it Tahoe then everyone wil know where it is.
We had a great time with the Ozawa family. They are the nicest people in the world and Scott's mom is a great cook. They have a wonderful house surrounded by a gently flowing creek and a grove of manzanita trees. These trees are super hard and ultra-hot burning. On top of that, they are absolutely beautiful with their smooth, bright burgundy bark. Max, the Ozawa's dog was great too. He's a two year old labrador with tons of energy and can understand the basic doggy commands.
We went to Sierra which is at the bottom of hill. Leona, Ginger, and I took the beginner class which was ok. My problem was that I couldn't get up after falling down. I had to flip over onto my knees and unlatch the snowboard so I could get up. Needless to say this got to be quite tiresome after a while. So I gave up to video and take pictures of everyone else.
On Sunday morning, we all went to meet Leona's mother and sister. They were both delightful people. The parents talked and talked most of the day so the rest of us walked the main strip in town. The town is a window into small town America...charming, quaint, quiet. Afterwards, we said our goodbyes and drove back to our neck of the woods.
Anyway, we had a great weekend thanks to the Ozawas!
www.mnftiu.cc | get your war on | page twenty-two
Does everything have to be a sound byte? Sound byte of the past 24 hours is "Shock and Awe". Every damned news reporter is waiting for it and saying it and emphasizing the "Sh-ock and AWE" and etc etc. Tired of hearing those words and unfortunately we're going to be hearing them for some time to come (even after the leveling of Bahgdad is finished).
The news coverage on this "war" is crazy. We have tons of media leeches following the troops around and showing live green night vision of themselves on rolling tanks, in camps, etc. I can't believe how things are different from even 12 years ago. They have 3D satellite photos, real-time communications/video from the front lines...the reporters are even going on the internet from rolling tanks and keeping the troops informed! It's amazing that with all of this technology, we still need to bring people to that war-front. You'd think it'd be like "Ender's Game" by now...where a kid thinks he's playing a war game but is actually controlling weapons and unmanned ships/planes and wins a war.
I hope someday it'll all be just video games. Pissed off countries will throw their leaders and armies in a giant Quake arena online and try to frag each other to death. Winner takes loser's country. Simple!

CNN correspondent Kevin Site's blog. He's in Iraq covering the war right now. Yikes!
Looks like making good coding books is not good business. Wrox AND Friends of Ed is going under. Oh man!!

I was wondering what to do for my birthday and Ginger took care of that with a great surprise birthday party. She's been planning it for a month or so to great success.
I started the day knowing something was up but not sure what. I went to breakfast with Tony and then he dropped me off at work. When he returned for lunch, I walked to the car and he had the trunk open. I was think..."hmmm, what's going on?" When I neared the car he closed the trunk. And I looked up and saw two of my other best buds from LA standing over to the side. Surprise! So we went to lunch at Pizza My Heart in Palo Alto and had a great time. Afterwards, they dropped me off for a meeting (Zzzzz...). They returned to pick me up right after and we were going to head home.
I decided to call home and see what Ginger was up to. She said not to come home before 7:25. It was 4pm. Dang...what are 4 old buddies going to do for 3 1/2 hours on a Friday afternoon? Happy Hour! So we headed to St. Stephens Green in Mountain View for a few pitchers of liquid confidence. After getting severely sloshed, we headed to Whole Foods for some double cream Gouda cheese and crackers and headed home.
When I walked up the stairs and around the corner, I saw someone huredly close the curtains on a darkened apartment. I opened the door and surprise!! There were quite a few people in my home! Scott and Leona, Ken and Amanda, Chihu and Masa, Hiromi, Masumi, Yuki, and Ginger were waiting for me. Ginger immediately put me to work barbequing all of the great food that she had prepared.
Anyway, we all had a good time eating and drinking that evening. Thanks to Ginger and everyone who helped put this shindig together for me. I deeply appreciate the effort you guys put into making my 28th b-day a memorable and happy one!
Joi Ito's Web: How Hydrogen Can Save America
There's been a lot of gum-flapping about the future of the American energy infrastructure and the so-called "Hydrogen Economy". In fact Wired has a great article about the need to push for this. Wired claims that in 10 years, the hydrogen economy can be reality with the same kind of governmental-blessing (and check-writing) that put Americans on the moon. I seriously would love to see it, but in the end, I'd still hate to be taxed for every mile I drive. I know, I'm still taxed in the EVs and on the Caltrain, but in the end, it amounts to pennies per week, not pennies per mile. What can I say? I'm cheap. In the end when it comes down to it, if it really cost me more to drive an EV than it does to drive a gas car, then I wouldn't do it. What's funny is that everyone thinks they're expensive and yada yada. The secret is that I'm going to pay about 1/4 over the life of my vehicle of what owners of gas cars play for their vehicles and this includes maintenance, new batteries, etc.
On a semi-related note...
To the protesters of the war on Iraq: Bottom line is that if you want to change the world...if you want to stop the war...if you want to clean the environment...if you want to save money...etc etc...
The answer is simple: Stop using gasoline. Stop driving the cars powered by Iraqi oil to the your protests rallies and marches. Stop screaming in the streets for change and not changing yourself. Stop buying Hummer H2s and putting a "No War on Iraq" bumper sticker to the rear beam of steel you call a bumper.
Me personally, I don't care about the war. It does not concern me. I've reduced my depency on foreign oil to almost nothing and hopefully someday that will end completely.
Joi Ito's Web: How Hydrogen Can Save America
There's been a lot of gum-flapping about the future of the American energy infrastructure and the so-called "Hydrogen Economy". In fact Wired has a great article about the need to push for this. Wired claims that in 10 years, the hydrogen economy can be reality with the same kind of governmental-blessing (and check-writing) that put Americans on the moon. I seriously would love to see it, but in the end, I'd still hate to be taxed for every mile I drive. I know, I'm still taxed in the EVs and on the Caltrain, but in the end, it amounts to pennies per week, not pennies per mile. What can I say? I'm cheap. In the end when it comes down to it, if it really cost me more to drive an EV than it does to drive a gas car, then I wouldn't do it. What's funny is that everyone thinks they're expensive and yada yada. The secret is that I'm going to pay about 1/4 over the life of my vehicle of what owners of gas cars play for their vehicles and this includes maintenance, new batteries, etc.
On a semi-related note...
To the protesters of the war on Iraq: Bottom line is that if you want to change the world...if you want to stop the war...if you want to clean the environment...if you want to save money...etc etc...
The answer is simple: Stop using gasoline. Stop driving the cars powered by Iraqi oil to the your protests rallies and marches. Stop screaming in the streets for change and not changing yourself. Stop buying Hummer H2s and putting a "No War on Iraq" bumper sticker to the rear beam of steel you call a bumper.
Me personally, I don't care about the war. It does not concern me. I've reduced my depency on foreign oil to almost nothing and hopefully someday that will end completely.
Tomorrow is my 28th B-day and as the big three-oh approaches, I figured it was time get out and do more stuff.
Ginger has been wanting to go camping so I figured ok...camping. I haven't been camping since the days at Lake Havasu [thanks to Zeke for posting awesome photos]. Those were fun times. Hot and dry and perfect for jumping into a nice cool lake. Not to mention all of the great cars, consumption of fine alcoholic beverages, and er..um...nice views. We decided to stop going to those because of the massive dust inhalation that would nearly kill us everytime we attended. It'd be great to go on a run again...3 days of hot sun, cool beer, and partying.
Anyway, I digress...it looks like our hopes for a fun camping weekend have been dashed by the impending liquid load that mother nature is going to drop on the Bay Area....sigh....I guess I'll go grab some pizza and beer at Pizza my Heart in Palo Alto. I severely love this place. Great pizza (Clams and Garlic is the Best!), good salads, big booths, surf themed place...it's great! I thought they closed down, but they moved into the old Burger King on University Ave. We've been going to the Los Gatos one religiously, but I think I may have to switch to the Palo Alto one to be my regular pizza place. I haven't tried downtown San Jose's Pizza My Heart, but then again, I don't really like going downtown unless I have to (like for Varekai). I like The Tech Museum and the SJ Museum of Art but downtown SJ just not a great "hanging out" place. They've been trying to "revive" the place since before I was born, but every attempt has made it suck more and more. I wonder if Polyesthers is still there.
Polyesthers was a fun 70's and 80's themed club in downtown SJ. Hmmm...maybe should go to the City for some clubbing...That sounds like fun, but it would suck to wait in the rain.
Hmmm...what else to do. Last year the O'Reilly's Oyster and Beer Festival was on the weekend of my birthday but they moved it to the first weekend in April. Not much going on this weekend anywhere. And rain!!! Ack!!
Maybe a BBQ with a few friends...setup the tarp to protect the BBQ from rain and grill away. Hmm...that doesn't sound too good. Sigh...what to do...what to do...
Using inline frames (iframe elements) to embed documents into HTML documents
I've been thinking of how to simplify/organize the links on dodoskido.com and iframes may be a good way to do it.
Starbucks
Food: Blueberry crumb cake & Hot Cocoa with Whipping Cream
Nutrition: 1200 calories, 64g of fat
1 hour of WiFi: $6.00
Food Cost: ~ $3.75
Total Cost: $9.75
McDonalds
Food: Cheeseburger Meal, Small Fries, Small Shake
Nutrition: 1110 calories, 40g of fat
1 hour of WiFi: Included
Food Cost: $3.99
Total Cost: $3.99
[via Gawker]
Crazy...wifi & a combo meal for $3.99. Less fat and calories than Starbucks too!
The first line of defense against online temptation.Pornography is an epidemic problem, and the impact within the body of Christ has been incalculable. NetAccountability combats this problem using the finest approach I've seen: a combination of technology AND personal relationships. Every Christian using the Internet should be NetAccountable and personally accountable. We must be part of the solution--not part of the problem.
Wha?? No porn? What's all of this bandwidth for...The Trinity Network? Sounds more like Hell than heaven. Damned moralists...go away and leave my Internet alone!!

Yahoo! News - French Fries Get New Name in Congress
While we teeter on the brink of WWIII, what does Congress decide to do? Change the name of one of America's favorite foods to remove references to France of course. Yes, from now on, Congressesional cafeterias will no longer server French fries or French toast. Instead, they will server the newly dubbed "Freedom Fries" and "Freedom Toast." That'll teach France to block a US war for oil!

Hello Kitty responds to your keyboard motion by talking and moving! Type with Kitty! Keyboard action and sound function. Hello Kitty responds to the keyboard and mouse motion by moving herself! (Moves both arms and head) Hello Kitty will talk with you, along with the input motion of the keyboard. (Kitty is able to talk in both Japanese and English. The languages can be switched.)
I'm afraid...very afraid...
Ever need to buy a drive belt online? Well, me neither but the belt on our Sparrow will snap eventually so I'm going to get a spare. Bearing.com (I know...what can't you buy online?) has them for really cheap. Now I have to gather all the necessary tools to replace the belt on the side of a road and I'll be ready to go!
Dodoskido Gallery :: Bikes for Sale
I have two bikes for sale. $100 each or $180 for both! First one to email/call/contact takes them. Delivery not available since I don't have a vehicle that can carry them. I'm in the Bay Area of CA btw.

During my teen years, I spent my most of my time (and money) on my car. My car was slow....damned slow. It was a total rice rocket with big wheels, loud exhaust, and a complement of lights, stickers, and stereo equipment that would make the intro of a WWF superstar look like a whisper in the night. Gone are those days of stickering and tinkering (well tinkering continues on the Sparrow) but now, we can sticker and add cool glowing lights to our apartment. Why? Well simply because we can. Can these be far from Ikea ubiquity? Or maybe an Ikea buyout?
There were a few minor snafus, but it looks like everything is working well again. I have new versions of Movable Type and Gallery running! The photo gallery is working again too. Some of the albums may show you an upgrade message the first time you click it, that's normal, just wait for it to update the album (a second or two) then click done and you'll go to the album's thumbnail page. Cheers!
We're moving! The site will be in a state of flux for a few weeks while we move and get the webhost primed and ready. The design will stay the same for now, but I'll have some new style sheets and layouts in the coming months as time allows. Right now, work has taken on new meaning as my work load has greatly increased in the age of smaller workforces and unemployment.
Anyway, be patient as things get moved around. I'm predicting minimal impact but we'll see...