Almost Free

I just stopped using Microsoft Outlook in favor of an all-Google solution to email, calendar, contacts and tasks (since now Google calendar and contacts sync with my mobile phone). Outlook is such a bulky program, I'm thrilled to drop it.

This leaves only two non-free software components in my computer network: Windows Vista and Quicken. I've got my eye on Mint.com as a replacement for Quicken, but I'm not quite ready to make the jump to keeping all my financial data in the Cloud. Plus, Mint seems a little to 'automatic' for me. Here's the basic software run-down:

• Browser: Chrome
• Email/PIM: Gmail
• Office: OpenOffice
• Security: AVG Free, Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware, CCleaner
• Imaging: GIMP and Paint.NET
• Media: iTunes, WMP, VLC Media Player

Almost there. Previously.

I Love the Future

I am thankful to be living in a time when we have the privilege to debate over health care. I love the future; so much better than the past.

Mexico

Recently, I heard a fool say...

Adults aren't any smarter than children, and what's really sad is to see someone who thinks they have it all figured out.

I think the fool is right.

Rural Economies

Driving through rural Ohio last night, passing horse-and-buggies on their way to a local produce auction, Rose and I were wondering if these areas are hit harder by economic recessions than urbanized areas. Probably. If your town was less-than-booming to begin with, what must it be like in a global recession? Or perhaps these economies operate semi-autonomously.

Hot Birthday

The hot weather today--Maximilian's 6th birthday--reminds me of how hot, clear and bright it was the day he was born. Happy birthday Maxie!

Solstice Girl

On summer solstice 2003, my beautiful girl Esmé came into the world. She brings long, warm days and happiness. Happy 3rd birthday Esmé!

Max's First Piano Recital

Last weekend Maxie-boy (soon to be 6) had his first piano recital..and he NAILED IT! We are pretty casual with his lessons--once every two weeks with semi-random practicing. We simply want to give our kids an artistic and technical appreciation of music. The intent is, along with other activities and interests, to raise well-rounded children. So he had been practicing his pieces pretty regularly, but could only play them 'perfectly' about 60% of the time.

There must have been something about the atmosphere of the recital--the other kids (all older than him), the parents, the venue--he was *just* a little bit nervous, and this edge seemed to bring out his best. He carried himself like such a young gentleman! It was really a special moment for him, for Rose and me, and even for little sis Esmé who was--surprisingly--very well-behaved the whole time (though we did fear for a moment that she was going to break out in song during the performance).

Last night I had a dream about over-abundant search engine results.

Grandpa.

The Case Against Kindergarten Red-Shirting

Almost every state has increased the age at which children are allowed to start primary school. This is remarkable, given the strong evidence that, in the United States, starting school later decreases educational attainment.

Redshirting is referred to as “the gift of time” in education circles, reflecting a perception that children who have been allowed to mature for another year will benefit more from their schooling. As we will discuss, little evidence supports this perception.

Link to the full study (PDF); via The Atlantic.

Esmé has entered the terrible twos. This one is beautiful, but beware, she has a will of steel.

Last night, we were getting in the car to go home after a little get-together. It was a beautiful, cool night, and the stars were out. As Max was getting into his seat, he looked up at the sky and said,

Daddy, outside is like a big room, and the sky is the ceiling, and all of the things in the world are just like things in the room.

Brothers K. Cuts Deep

To wit,

He tried not to think of it, but that did not help either. The most irritating thing about it was that the anxiety seemed completely accidental, external, as if it had nothing to do with him. Something was disturbing his conscience, just as some object may irritate a person, when he is absorbed in work or a heated argument, without his being aware of it. The irritation grows and grows and becomes really painful before he manages to remove the offending object, which often turns out to be some insignificant thing like a handkerchief that has fallen on the floor or a book that has not been replaced in the bookcase.

To a parent, a child is a mirror, revealing everything.

Earth Day - Ancillary Benefits of a Recession

Aside from the gaping holes that appeared in our retirement accounts around October 2008, our family has (thus far) been fortunate to avoid much of the mayhem of the current economic crisis. That said, the pressure to “live leaner” and to carefully consider how we spend our time, money and other resources remains strong.

One ancillary positive effect of this pressure, which I’ve noticed over the past month or so, is that our family is producing about 40% less trash and recyclables per week than we did, say, six months ago. This is a reduction from about 13.4 cubic feet/week to about 8 cubic feet/week.

We’re certainly not eating less--in fact the kids keep growing and, if anything, appetites are increasing. I think it simply amounts to buying less crap that comes in packaging. Feels good. And you know what? I cannot, for the life of me, remember what that other 40% of stuff might have been--we don’t miss it.

Still seems like a lot of trash, though.

A Wise Boy

A few weeks ago, Max (now 5-1/2) was telling me and Rose about a classmate who was pushing him around on the playground. This is the first time we’d heard of it, and I think they were playing innocently enough--just one of those situations where Maxie was done playing and the other kid wasn’t yet.

So I said to Max, half joking, “Just push him back!”

Max promptly replied, as he raised his hands questioningly, “Well that won’t work, because I’ll push him, he’ll push me, I’ll push him again, and what will it solve?”

Brilliant.

A few nights ago, driving home after a long, fun day with the grandparents, Max, out of the blue says, “Daddy, I don’t care about goals.”

I asked him what he meant, exactly.

“I mean, I don’t care if I’m trying to do something and somebody else does it first--like, before me--that’s OK with me. I just want to do it, then I’m happy.”

Quite a balanced perspective for a young one, if I may say.

Only the closed mind is certain.

Add to list of things Jason likes: A good shoe repair shop. Thank you, shoe repairman, for making my favorite Oxford shoes last 8 years and counting.

I love using things for a long time.

My special guy Maxie--it's like this Lego ad was made for him. He assembled this 795-piece MX-81 spacecraft all by himself in about 4 hours! Dad is so proud...

Now that we’re in a global recession, perhaps at the end of it the citizens of the world (particularly the first-world variety) will come to a new balanced perspective of how economic growth should fit into the total framework of human existence.

In the United States, as capitalists in general, we tend to focus on economic growth for its own sake. We see it as the bellwether of the nation’s health. However, economic growth should simply be one of many positive by-products of humanity’s striving to better itself and improve the quality of life for all.

The creators of the Genuine Progress Indicator metric have embraced this way of thinking for over a decade now. If, after all the current chaos subsides, we see a groundswell of support for this “new-old” way of thinking, I for one will consider the revised world-view worth the price.

There’s an old cliché: when you travel, you leave a piece of yourself wherever you go. But what I feel is the profound effect certain places--a very few--continue to have on me long after I’ve departed. What lingers is permanent mark on the soul, an echo, a feeling that these places are, or could be, home.

...for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself--so like a brother, really--I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again.

Juan Enriquez thinks that the conflux of DNA manipulation and therapy, tissue generation, and robotics is leading humans to the next stage of their evolution.

Happy New Playstation 3 Owner

Over 2 years after the initial PS3 launch, I finally saw my buying opportunity: a $150 rebate from Sony. So I took the plunge, and got an 80GB PS3 for $250 + tax. That kind of purchase feels good to me.

In the second half of 2008, once I finally decided that a next-gen console purchase was imminent, I did a fair amount of research on the Xbox360 vs. PS3 question. I came to the following conclusion:

The only real option is the PS3. Xbox360, which many love, is waning technology and weaker hardware. Wii is a toy, a novelty (incidentally, I bought a Wii in addition to my PS3). Blu-Ray is the highest quality video delivery system available right now, I have a largish HDTV, and I want that. Most importantly, as of year-end 2008, there are numerous critically acclaimed, high quality games for the PS3 that I really, really want, which are either exclusive to or available on the PS3 (this was not necessarily the case at the end of 2007). If I had purchased a 360, I'd feel like I was buying inferior technology.

After one week of ownership, I can add the following ‘surprise’ observations that only became apparent once I started fiddling with things:

• The look and feel--the build quality--of the PS3 is very high. It runs silently, as a high-end A-V component should. You get what you pay for. The XMB interface is sleek, intuitive, and a joy to use.
• The PS3 is an *amazing* networked media server. I installed TVersity on my PC and my PS3 immediately found all my shared videos, music, photos with *zero configuration*. This feature alone is almost worth the price of the PS3.
• I love the PS Network Store. I’ve already downloaded Super Stardust HD, Echochrome, Pixeljunk Eden, and plan to continue this behavior. The downloadable demos are a great feature.
• Playstation Home -- I like it, or…I want to like it…it’s cool, very well executed, but there’s not a lot to do there yet. We need expansion!
• Curious about: Installing Linux and MAME on the PS3.

Sony has created a fun, powerful, flexible, high-end platform here. I think with the inevitable upcoming price cuts the PS3 will become with next-gen console of choice.

If you like Douglas Adams and The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, but want something that bites a little deeper, try the book that inspired Hitch Hiker’s: The Sirens of Titan.

And why does Kurt Vonnegut like fire engines so much?

My New Year's girl.

Last week I was upgrading the graphics card in our family PC (Radeon X1950XT to HD4830), working at the dining room table next to Max, who was working on a massive Lego vehicle he had received as a Christmas present. He was making observations and asking questions about what I was doing. I showed him the motherboard, CPU, graphics card, hard drives, etc., and attempted to give him an explanation of each component’s function.

Later that day, we went to Microcenter to get some miscellaneous hardware to finish the job. While we were in the store Max said, “Daddy, I want to see the mama-boards...where are they? My next spaceship is going to have, like, four computer brains.”

Mama-boards.

Peace on Earth.

Happy Holidays 2008 from Jason, Rose, Max & Esmé

"I see your family photos everyday... It was the time like a dream, sweet dream."

Max's first Pac-Man drawing. The legacy continues.

Funny kid stuff recently: Lately, whenever Esmé gets her hands on some money, she always refers to it as $5. We have no idea why this happens, but it's hilarious. She'll hold up a penny and say, "Here's FIIIVE dollars!"

Max has been exploring the scientific method in Kindergarten. One night, he decided he was going to explain it to us. "A hypoposis is...it's like your idea. A hy-pop-osis is your concept, Daddy...and then you have to test it."

These kids are too much. They're my Christmas presents.

I think I originally read Catcher in the Rye in 1992 or 1993--when I started college it was on my list of “books I should have read in high school but didn’t because my school was too religiously conservative.” Unfortunately, when I first read it I was in the beginning stages of architecture school, and was apparently too distracted by my new obsession (and the corresponding workload) to appreciate the full beauty of the story.

I just finished reading it again, and realized, interestingly, that Holden’s little sister Phoebe seems to be the spiritual twin to Esmé in Salinger’s earlier short story bearing that name.

Stepping back, the thing that intuitively concerns me about ‘the state of the world’ right now is a general volatility and compression of critical events into ever shorter time horizons. Financial markets are a mess, but my real concern is that financial crises seem to be getting closer together, and the swings--both up and down--are growing larger. I’m concerned about resource use and global warming--weather seems more volatile and climate disasters more frequent. I’m concerned about political instability--the world is ‘getting smaller’ yet we (the nations of the world) don’t seem to be getting on any better.

These are intuitive comments, generated from a mix of qualitative information and personal observation. If you think of the earth as an organism, with each component part of human existence being part of that organism (the ecosystem, the political system, the economic system, the technological system, etc.), it boils down to this question: How healthy are we? How healthy, or stressed, is the earth as an organism?

In winter, in downtown Cleveland, there's a gentle breeze that blows. It runs about 30 MPH on average and it has a nickname--the "breeze that makes people leave northeast Ohio."

In Max's Kindergarten class, the current big thing is Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network. Toys 'R' Us is pushing it, everybody's pushing it. This is all fine, fine, when it comes to toys and costumes, etc. However, the show is quite violent, and I can't believe there are so many parents out there allowing 5-6 year olds to watch it.

Rose and I were having dinner with some friends last night--wonderful people--and the experience reminded us of what characterizes our social circle. We have a very mixed group of friends--different income levels, different political views, different cultural interests, different geographies, different ideas of what constitutes a good time...the list goes on. We tend to slice across personality types--many of the people we call friends wouldn't really get along with one another, even though they get along with us. Over time, we've observed that the single common thread that runs through the individuals and couples that we consider friends, and who remain friends over time, is the following set of characteristics:

• They have a reasonable amount of confidence about themselves,
• They have a genuine interest in other people,
• They have no agenda to deliver, no big chips on their shoulders,
• And nothing to prove to anyone.

True relaxed inner confidence is so rare. It's an 'OK-ness' with yourself that allows you to avoid one-upsmanship, just be yourself, have a good time. You'd think these qualities would be more common, but they really are not, and they're a treasure when found.

Years ago, we posted some of illustrator Gary Taxali's work on Opensewer. Recently, his work was featured on the cover of Newsweek.

Ahhh...feels good not to be ashamed of our President.

Although we took over 2,000 photographs on our recent 3-week trip to Japan & Korea, upon reviewing them I found so many instances where--amazingly--I wish I'd taken more. Just a little more detail of that building or street, or a video & sound recording of the subways, or another photo of a restaurant or a temple, or a photo of a silly sign, or the desk where I sat...not subject matter for award-winning photos...just memory.

I've posted a photo set of highlights from our recent trip to Japan & South Korea. A larger set of photos, with more detail on each city (Tokyo, Kyoto, Seoul) can be found here.

I thought our trip to Japan & Korea was expensive until I got home and updated our stock portfolio (ouch).

Home.

Jet lag is *nasty* after 27 hours of continuous travel, moving from a +13 hour time zone. Special bonus accomplishment while coming home: our 777, thanks to a 170 MPH tail wind, traveled in excess of 700 MPH. So far this is the fastest I've ever traveled, and as close to the speed of sound as I'll likely ever get (unless I hitch a ride in an F-18 some time).

Leaving Seoul and soon-to-be-distant (again) friends. Five year reunion held in the sixth year; hopefully we'll see them again soon. The world is small but still big, and Seoul is a city almost too large to comprehend. Travel takes a lot of energy; we miss home but still wish we could stay longer. Seems like we've been away forever, but the trip went so fast.

Leaving Kyoto for Seoul today; shinkansen to Tokyo then an airplane...long day of travel ahead, but some old friends at the end. Some Kyoto observations:

• I made a Florence reference in my Tokyo entry on 10/6, but that was only referring to the flavor of a relatively small district around Shibuya station. More appropriately, based on my limited observations, I think one could refer to Kyoto as the "Firenze" of Japan.
• Tokyo is a modern city, so the high-tech, the modern, the sometimes-ugly...they all blend together fairly well into a hyper but energetic and attractive mess. In Kyoto, the new and the old do not blend so well. For example, take the Higashiyama district, with its beautiful traditional architecture and multitude of shrines and temples. On its western, southern, and northern edges, it collides with a landscape of 70s-90s vintage horrid-modern masonry and curtain wall mid-rise buildings. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the overhead power lines and transformers everywhere.
• In contrast to the above point, one of the most beautiful things about Kyoto is the fact that you can be walking in the midst of what feels like a concrete jungle, and then suddenly come upon a wooded shrine in the least expected place. When this happens, it's like discovering an oasis.
• I can't get the ubiquitous phrase 'onegai shimasu', in that high-pitched 'may I serve you' voice, out of my head. So kind, but so strange.

More later...

After five days in Tokyo, we're leaving for Kyoto today. It's been a hybrid relaxing/intense few days, but an amazing experience so far and a lot of fun. Few random observations about an American family traveling in Tokyo with two young children:

• Tokyo's non-orthagonal configuration makes many of its districts feel (but not look) like older European cities. Our first night, wandering around Shibuya station, felt a little like wandering around central Florence (if you squinted your eyes until everything became a little blurry).
• The city, considering its size and intensity, is surprisingly quiet. At Shibuya crossing, thousands cross at every light change without a word--you can almost hear the footsteps. If it weren't for traffic noise, and the blaring noise from video screens on buildings, there wouldn't be much noise at all. Drivers do not honk at each other.
• People move smoothly and efficiently everywhere. Even with the crushing crowds on the metro and Yamanote line, we never felt unsafe or overcrowded, even with kids in a stroller.
• Tokyo doesn't have any public trash cans. You 'pack out' what you use, just like when hiking. Public restrooms don't have paper towels, and often don't have air dryers. You carry a small cloth handkerchief with you to dry your hands. This, and many other examples exist everywhere of efforts to make a small footprint, individually and collectively.
• Service and courtesy are amazing. No less than five separate individuals attend to us on our way from the front door of our hotel to the elevator. But these same people navigate the metro stations without regard to anyone around them, and might just run you over if they're in a hurry.
• Japanese people love our kids; they get a lot of smiles and a lot of photos taken of them.

More to come from Kyoto...

This is the busiest Fall I can remember. I’m not a big fan of saying that I’m busy, because I firmly believe that there’s always time for something if you want there to be--it’s all about priorities. Nonetheless...wow, we are busy. During the months of September & October 2008:

• Our son Max started Kindergarten
• I started teaching a graduate course at a local university
• We have several improvement & repair projects going on at our house
• I have two major deals underway in the office (one of which recently died, which is always fun)
• We moved a significant amount of money into a real estate investment
• And we’re taking Max & Esmé on a three-week trip to Japan and South Korea to visit some old friends

This is all happening over a span of about, say, seven weeks. It’s enough to keep us on our toes. To stay on top of all of this, and to give each individual the love they need during times that are special for them is, admittedly, quite a challenge.

One week to go...

Last night, while sitting at the dining room table building Lego Mars Mission vehicles, Maxie asked me: 'Daddy, will there always be a tomorrow? I mean, is the world ever going to end?'

Ah, the thoughts of a 5-year old.

I told him (in simpler and more explanatory language) that individual people, after they get old and gray, will come to an end and die, but as long as we keep having children and take care of the Earth (and the other planets for that matter), there will always be a tomorrow.

Max started Kindergarten today!