Married, but single

Strange posting, I know. That is the only way I can describe my current situation. I'm married. Heck, I'm married with half a dozen kids. But yet I live alone in a 700 square foot condo in Silicon Valley hundreds of miles away from my family. I have a sister that is married. She lives in Texas. Her husband lives in California. They see each other about once a month or so. Now I understand to a small degree how she lives her life. I don't care for it much. I prefer my six noisy kids and my beautiful wife to solitude. Solitude will come with time when the children move away and I become older and (hopefully) wiser. Then it will be my wife and I. The children probably will not be gone until 2022 or 2027. That's a long time away.

Today was my first day on the phones. I took three calls in a three hour period of time and I closed two of those three calls. It was a good day. I'm glad to be here and contributing to the cause.

California

The summer of 1989 was the last time I spent any considerable time in California. In 1989 I sold books for Eagle Marketing. They sold illustrated scriptures with cassette tapes to families. I did OK, but other guys on my team did a lot better than I did.

Now I'm back in California for some training. The last time I was here, California didn't seem like it was that much different than the rest of the country. But this time around, there are some noticeable differences. Bottled water seems to be out. Instead, drink water from a tap. People are a lot more conscientious about recycling, good gas mileage, mass transit, turning off equipment when not in use. I have seen more Toyota Prius cars here in my short two weeks than I have in my entire life. Businesses have multiple garbage cans so that recyclable materials can be placed in bins that get recycled. Its amazing how people are conscious about recycling, about using more fuel efficient cars, etc. I'm not an avid recycler, but it is refreshing to see that kind of an attitude make its way into a society that accepts and encourages recycling.

My first photo sale

Last year I purchased my first real digital camera. I've taken approximately 5,500 photos in the eight months or so that I've had the camera. One of my friends suggested that I submit my photos to an online, royalty-free, stock photography web site. So I decided to take him up on the offer and I did. The website is www.istockphoto.com . Well, I uploaded one photo and nothing happened. I uploaded two more photos and nothing happened. I got busy doing the job interview thing and ignored my photo portfolio. Well, I checked it a few weeks ago and I actually sold a photo! Yea! And I checked again today and I sold another photo! Double yea! So how much money have I made selling photos? Well, about four bucks and some change. I know. Its not a lot of money. But I only have three photos. And the site has millions of photographs for people to choose from. Its a psychological "high" that you get when someone thinks your photograph is good enough to purchase and use in whatever way they deem. Perhaps its being purchased as an example of how NOT to take a picture. Hopefully not. Hopefully the photos will be put to good use.

A new job...

Right now I'm sitting in a one bedroom condo in San Jose, California. No kids. No wife. Just the three of us - me, myself, and I - are sitting here with my laptop blogging away. What am I doing in California? Well, a couple of weeks ago I quit my job with my former employer to take on the same position (tech support engineer) for a firm based in California. I was with my former employer for eight years and a month and some change, but who's counting anyway, right? My former employer has struggled for years. The last couple of layoffs at the company were a little scary. So I decided to look for other opportunities. The amazing thing is that when you start looking for another job, you usually find one. So how did I get here? Here's the story....

Backup to October 2007. My former employer was in the throws of their annual layoffs. I happened to be in Wal-Mart when I bumped into another former employee of my former employer in the store. We talked for several minutes and I told him what was going on. He said that his current employer was hiring and they were growing like crazy. So I decided to send him my resume. Well, one thing lead to another and I got a new job, leaving my old job far behind. Was it hard to change jobs? Absolutely!! When you've been with a company for 8+ years, you start to have a lot of friends and feelings about the place. I knew a lot of people in the support organization that I worked in. I had won awards for doing a job well done. I had sacrificed being with my family for the fourth of July one year to go onsite to Belfast, Ireland to take care of a large customer. So I had plenty of skin invested in my employer.

But the company changed in the eight years I was there. The benefits slowly began to erode. Annual pay increases turned into semi-annual (every two years, not every six months) raises ("Just be grateful you have a job....." was the quote from my boss one year when I didn't get a raise). Bonuses and other fun stuff dried up and went away. And then came the outsourcing. Jobs moving from the States to India. And not just development jobs, but support jobs. I knew when that happened it wasn't a matter of if, but when. When would I be disposed of like a used Kleenex (I'd use another metaphor but I may offend), cast off like 70's fashion? (Wait... 70's fashion is back in fashion!) When would my number be drawn and when would I be asked to leave? I decided that I didn't want to be left hanging, so I started taking things into my own hands. No better way to shape my destiny than to decide to shape it myself. Yes, to a small degree, you do control your destiny. You don't and won't get everything you want (I'm still waiting to get my Corvette), but you can control what you do and what you spend your time, talents, energy, and money on. And when you focus your energy on change, change does indeed come.

So with the writing clearly written on the wall, I made my quest to search for new employment. It was in the midst of this quest that I ran into my friend at Wal-Mart last October. I had applied for and interviewed for one other job. This was the second job that I applied for and I got the job. Yes, I was extremely blessed. And yes, I did feel the hand of Divine Providence in my life as He took care of me like no one else ever could. And yes, I openly acknowledge my faith and belief in a God and His divine nature. And He cared enough about me to take care of me and my family in our needs. I am truly blessed and cannot complain.

My new job requires that I spend three months in California being trained. Hence the one bedroom condo in Cali. I get to fly home once a month to spend the weekend with my wife and children. I've installed Skype on my home computer and my laptop. And I've spent considerable time watching and talking to them over Skype. Its fun to see them. We've even had family prayer a few times. So we're able to be a family as much as possible. But to say that's its hard to be away from them is the understatement of the year. My wife comes out to California for President's day weekend. I can't wait until she arrives. Once you've been married, it sucks being alone again. But I take it a day at a time. I try to stay busy. I'm exercising about 15 - 30 minutes a day.

Well, I've got to get into bed. I need to get to work early in the morning.

Oil at $100 per barrel

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Nothing rings in the new year like oil hitting an all time record of $100 per barrel. So what's driving up the price of oil? Speculators and speculators and, let me see, speculators. Yes, demand is high and supply is tight. And yes, there are problems out there. But the oil is still flowing. There haven't been any real shortages like there were in the 80's when oil hit $40 a barrel. If there were real shortages, the US government would release oil from the strategic petroleum reserve to help meet those shortages. That's what they did for Katrina and Rita a few years ago. I think there is this fear factor in the oil business that something is going to come in and whack supply without affecting demand and that is causing oil prices to spike. OPEC announces that they won't be able to meet their share of global demand by 2024. Hmmmm.... That's like 16 years away. The higher cost of oil is dampening demand. I know that I don't drive near a much now as I used to. Sooner or later we'll experience stagflation (this same economic situation happened in the 80s), the economy will tank, and demand for oil will drop like a rock. And the price of oil will drop as well. But until the US and worldwide economies cool down enough, oil won't plunge. And we'll all be held hostage by increased oil prices, which in turn raise the price for everything else that we consume. Have you noticed the price of food lately? Can you say sticker shock?

And yes, it doesn't help when the dollar is at an all-time low against practically every major currency in the world, and that is caused by lower interest rates here in the States. But still, I don't think half a percent drop in the interest rates in the States would have this profound effect on oil prices.

So I'll sit and wait. I'll wait for the economy to cool. I'll wait for the speculators to get burned. Because they are burning everyone else right now. They are making some incredible money right now, but eventually normalcy will return. One good thing that this has done is it has caused people to purchase more fuel efficient automobiles. It has caused Congress to pass new mileage standards for automobiles. This is a good thing.

Again, Happy New Year! Have you hugged your oil speculator lately? ;-)

'Tis the Season to be . . .

jolly. Broke. Cold. Enlightened. Pick one. Or add one to it.

Two days ago was Christmas. My wife and I decided earlier in the season to not go into debt to pay for Christmas. For the most part, we did pretty good on that decision. I think we only put about $150.00 on a credit card for the two of us and six kids. And that will be paid off the next time I get paid. The rest of Christmas was paid in cash. Thank goodness I got a year end bonus from my employer, or life would have been very bleak. So, what did we end up getting the kids? Here's a run down of presents:

* 1 Nintendo Wii, a few games, an extra controller, numchuck and some Wii points. I paid full retail (considering that a lot of other people were paying several hundred dollars above retail for the console) for the game console. I bought it at the end of October from Amazon.com. The Wii and assorted games went to my three oldest kids.

* Geo Tracks Grand Central station for one of my boys.

* A bicycle for another boy.

* Nerf "you'll shoot your eye out" dart guns for another boy. This one reminds me a lot of myself when I grew up as a kid. Scary.

* New denim pants (blue jeans) for the wife along with movie tickets and gift certificates to our favorite local Chinese restaurant. Enough movie passes and gift certs for two dates.

* A shirt, tie and a bench press set (need some free weights) for me. Its sad to say, but I'm getting very fat and flabby in my older age. I need to tone down.


The kids were absolutely estatic about their presents. I must admit that I enjoyed playing on the Wii as much as they did. I'm utterly amazed at how Nintendo revolutionized game play with their game console. I'm even more amazed at how popular their gaming console is. I thought after being out for a year that demand would finally relent. Well, not the case for the Wii. I was in one store a few days before Christmas and I stumbled upon newly arrived Wiis. That is the only time since their release that I've ever seen one in a store. Crazy. Anyway, the thing is fun to play. I played boxing within the Wii Sports with my son. My arms are actually sore from the game play. So if this fat guy can get some exercise from playing the game, then this thing isn't such a bad thing after all.

Today, I am lucky to be alive

I am lucky to be here writing in my blog and not in a hospital room or worse, in a morgue. Tom, what is up? And why are you saying that? Well, I am part of a van pool. Today there happened to be seven of us in the van. One of my collegues was driving and I was in the front passenger seat. We had been in the van on the road for about five minutes or so when all of a sudden the driver slams on the brakes and says, "Holy Crap! Holy Crap! HOLY CRAP!". I was not paying attention when this happened and I looked up to see this Isuzu Rodeo rolling (vehicles are not meant to roll) and rolling and rolling... He rolled on the right side (northbound) median, rolled through a fence and finally rolled to rest on the tires on the frontage road next to the freeway. The van stopped. I got out and ran to the Isuzu Rodeo (or what was left of it). I didn't know what to expect. I did not see the driver ejected during the rolling action. The two things going through my mind were - 1.) Is the driver dead or alive (do we need to get an ambulance ASAP)? 2.) Is the vehicle leaking gasoline and will it explode and burn the vehicle and occupant? I'm the first person over to the vehicle (there were other people coming up quickly) and the man was still alive. Whew!! He looked stunned/dazed, but he was alive. He was strapped into his seat with his seat belt. His seat belt saved this man's life. I walked around the vehicle a bit and did not smell any gasoline. Other people who walked/ran up talked to and worked with the driver. Several people called 911. Because he was not in any imminent danger, we left him strapped into his seat in the vehicle. Within about five or ten minutes the police were on the scene. And about five minutes after that the ambulance and fire department were there. The fire department looked like they were using the jaws of life to extricate the man out of his vehicle

I looked around the man's Rodeo. There is a two pound bag of white flour that had come out of a sack that hit the pavement and had partially ruptured, spilling flour over the road. The hood of the vehicle was gone, exposing the engine. The windshield was shattered, but still somewhat attached to the vehicle. On the ground were coins, personal belongings, various vehicle parts, etc. It was a debris field that was scattered over about 100 feet or so. Back at the interstate there were huge black marks where the Rodeo landed. There were gouge marks in the asphault where the rims dug into the asphault, and a chunk of asphault came off the road.

So, what happened? Since this happened around 7:35 AM, I am guessing the man fell asleep at the wheel. He was traveling southbound on I-15. He crossed the median, did a Dukes of Hazzard leap across the left lane of northbound I-15, landed on the right lane of I-15 and then he started to roll his Isuzu Rodeo. I honestly don't know how many times the vehicle rolled. Watching the vehicle roll, it sure seemed like it rolled a lot with stuff coming out like crazy. My guess is at a minimum eight rolls, probably more than that.

Once the police and fire department showed up, we packed up and drove into work. It wasn't until I arrived to work that I realized what had just taken place. Had we been driving just a tad be faster and had been on the road two or three seconds ahead, the outcome would have been much different. Had we been two or three seconds ahead, he would have crashed into our van, potentially killing myself, the driver and other passengers in the van. If we weren't dead, we would have been in the hospital. Luckily, no one else was at the location where the other vehicle landed and it ended up just a single vehicle accident. But nonetheless, it makes you sit and wonder. It makes you appreciate your life. It makes you think about if your personal affairs are in order. Are you "ready to die"? I personally think that the seven of us in the van today were taken care of by a higher power, that our lives were spared. And I am ever so grateful that my life was spared earlier this morning and not taken.

Stock market melt down - August 9, 2007

If you eat too much, you get fat and you die. If you drink too much, you kill your brain and your liver and you die. If you drive to fast, you get pulled over, you're given a ticket (and even possibly hauled off to jail), and you eventually loose your license. Game over.

So, how many credit card offers have you received in the last week? I think we average one or two credit card offers per day. We went on vacation last month. We were gone for about 10 days. When we picked up our mail from the post office, there were approximately 20 credit card offers or second mortgage offers, or "convenience checks" (convenient for who?) that were mailed to us during that period of time. There were two or three from Washington Mutual. There were probably six or more from Chase (I'll never do business with them ever again). There were convenience checks from other people I do business with. Blah, blah, blah...

OK, I understand why we receive all these offers. I pay our bills on time. We're never late to pay on our debt. But what would happen if I started to apply for all these credit cards and I started to use them? I would get to a point where I could not keep up on my payments. Just the minimum payments. I would fall behind. And I would become delinquent. My delinquency would lower my credit score. The "easy" credit cards would go away. If it got really bad, I could loose my house and become homeless. OUCH!

I feel like the banks that issue credit cards are like drug dealers. Instead of being on a street corner trying to entice you to do illegal drugs, they are trying to push easy money. Everyone does it. Practically every store has some sort of credit available so that people can buy on time. Here is the problem.... They don't warn you about paying the money back. Or they advertise low payments (You can pay $15/month for the rest of your life!) that go on forever.

I remember when I was a kid it was cool to smoke. (Tom, what does smoking have to do with credit card offers. Give me a minute and I'll do the tie-in...) Everyone smoked. Then some research was done on the effects of cigarette smoke on the human body. The Surgeon General has been putting warning labels on cigarette packages for years. I remember as a kid reading the warning label: "Warning: The Surgeon General has determined that cigarette smoking is hazardous to your health." Hmmm..... That doesn't sound good, does it. But people still do it. Some people get away with it. Most people end of dieing from cigarettes in some form or another. If there are such dire warnings, then why do people continue to smoke? Because they gain pleasure from smoking. Besides, the effects from smoking won't happen for years to come. BUT, there has been a change in people's perceptions about smokers. Non-smokers have become annoyed. They have legislated that non-smokers should not have to bear the unwanted smelly second-hand smoke. There have been advertising campaigns against smoking. And people are quitting. Fewer people smoke today than they did 30 or 40 years ago.

I believe that easy money is bad for our economy, just like cigarette smoking is hazardous to our health. Maybe, just maybe, businesses should put warnings on credit card applications: "Warning: The Federal Reserve has determined that too much revolving debt can be fatal to your credit rating. It can lead to bankruptcy and foreclosure on your home. You can become homeless because you're buying on time. If you fail to make timely payments, your financial life will be ruined." Then there should be a spot to initial next to it indicating that you have read the and understand the stern warning you've been given.

________ (Please initial here): I understand the above credit card warning. I understand that if I fail to pay my debts that my financial life will be miserable. I will pay more for my car and house loans. I will pay more for home and auto insurance.

Or maybe credit card issuers should be required to send out a one or two page pamphlet that enumerates the consequences of too much credit. There could be a debt prevention hot line that people can call to talk them out of using their credit cards. Or maybe we should create public service announcements that tell people to not do drugs, err.. I mean to not use credit. Right now there is no social stigma against those who are in debt and those who go bankrupt. There used to be, but that stigma has gone away. That stigma needs to come back. People need to learn to save before they buy. It worked for smokers, so it should work for credit card-aholics.

Will there be opposition? You betcha! Big tobacco fought long and hard that their products were not addictive or that they caused bodily harm. That was an enormous fight. But we won. Credit card issuers have really, REALLY deep pockets. The fight to curb consumer debt will be huge. Bigger than big tobacco. So the financial institutions will fight to keep these measures away from the consumer. Will it be work the fight? I think so. Our society's debt will be a hinderance on our financial institutions. One good jolt and the nations largest banks can and will fail...

So the next time you receive that credit card application in the mail for that shiney new credit card, ask yourself if you think its worth it. Chances are, you won't think that it is.

Pentax K10D camera

Well, I did it. I went out and purchased my first DSLR camera. I chose the Pentax K10D as the camera. Why? Because I have Pentax glass and I did not want to spend a lot of money on new glass. And the features (weather sealing, CCD image cleaner, shake reduction) are simply not found on a camera in the price range of the Pentax. No one even comes close.

I've had the camera for a couple of months. I've put 2,500 pictures through it. Here is what I think it does well:

Good stuff it does:
* It takes sharp pictures. Need good glass to get good pictures.
* It fits well in your hand.
* Controls are fairly simply to master and not overly complicated. (Although there were a couple of things that are in locations that are somewhat counter-intuitive).
* Battery lasts a LONG time. In fact, I've never killed a battery completely dead when shooting. Then again, I don't use the internal flash, nor do I spend a lot of time reviewing photos on my camera. That's why there's Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop CS3.

The not so good stuff:
* Automatic white balance often times is clueless. But nothing you can't fix in Lightroom.
* Photographs seem a little on the dark side, especially in high contrast photos. The camera has a tendency to expose more for the brighter areas than the darker areas. This surprises me because of the multi-segment metering system. In backlit situations, I generally have to adjust the exposure. But I have to be careful because too much adjustment and you blow out the picture. Lightroom can correct dark photos quite well.
* When in auto ISO mode, you don't know what ISO the camera is set at. It would be very handy to see in the viewfinder the ISO setting at all times, in addition to shutter speed and f-stop settings.
* When you are at the high ISO settings (800 - 1600 range), there is a fair amount of noise. A little more than I care to have.

Overall, the camera does a fairly decent job of taking pictures, especially when the ISO is in the 400 and below range. In fact, I took some photos of a friend and his family and the pictures turned out really well. I had about four rolls of unexposed 35mm film left. After I took my friend's photos, I gave the film away. I don't ever intend or plan on going back to film ever again. In fact, I'm going to get rid of my film camera. Mistake? I don't think so. The great thing about digital is that you can shoot and shoot and shoot until you either run out of battery or memory on your memory card. Then you can print what you like and discard what you don't want.

I also went to Yellowstone National Park and took a bunch of photos. I have some great pictures of a bull elk with velvet on his antlers.

The one thing I yearn for is a larger sensor. I like the sensor of the Canon 5D because it is full size 35mm. That full size sensor helps keep the noise down at the higher ISO settings.

New camera - Pentax K10D

I currently own two film cameras. I own an old Pentax ME Super (hasn't been used in at least a decade, if not longer) and a Pentax PZ-1P. Although the PZ-1P is showing its age, it is a great film camera. I hate to give up film, but the cost of purchasing film and the processing is getting expensive. And since I'm a computer guy, I want to import my images without using a scanner or purchasing a photo CD. Also, I typically end up with a lot of OK photos. With digital, I can delete what I don't want or use.

I have finally decided to go digital as in digital SLR. I really want a Canon 5D, but that camera is close to $3,000 and I have no Canon glass to use with it. And you have to use good glass on the 5D or else you're wasting your money. A good friend of mine suggested that I continue with Pentax because of my investment in glass. So I looked at the current Pentax DSLR lineup and I have decided that the K10D is the camera I want. Its also the most expensive Pentax DSLR camera that Pentax currently has to offer. But the features are very nice and it is highly recommended on some internet sites that review cameras.

Pentax sells the K10D as a kit, but I'm not very thrilled with the accompanying glass. Pentax will be releasing a new star lens, which is the smc DA * 16-50mm F2.8 ED/AL (IF) SDM. What does all that mean? It means that for about $900, you get one heck of a lense. Too bad the glass has not yet released (due out April 2007, or so I've been told). Only problem is that I don't have $900 to burn on new glass. Maybe Pentax will read my blog and sponsor me. One could only wish.

So do I own a Pentax K10D? No, not yet. But I hope to have a copy some time this year.