Tralfaz

Month: March 2016

  • Guilty Pleasure – Milla Jovovich movies

    Guilty Pleasure – Milla Jovovich movies

    I can admit that there is something about scifi movies with Milla Jovovich kicking ass that I just enjoy watching.

    Multipass

    My first exposure was with the SciFi comedy “5th Element” a movie that I have watched probably 100 times, and to this day think is probably Luke Perry’s finest acting ever, it is a thoroughly enjoyable romp. Many memorable lines in the movie, starring Bruce Willis, Ian Holm, as well as Gary Oldman as the bad guy.

    Who can forget the epic line: “Multipass”?  Geeks everywhere get the reference.

    This catapulted her career as a kick-ass protagonist in the genre.

    Following The Fifth Element comes the slick production of Ultraviolet, where she again just reigns supreme. The premise being: (more…)

  • Late to the Party – The Sopranos

    Late to the Party – The Sopranos

    I just started watching The Sopranos. Yeah, I am lame. Of course I heard all the raving and wonderful reviews, but I didn’t have HBO, and I never rented the DVD’s.

    Now, with the Roamio, I have connected both my Netflix account and my Amazon Prime account for streaming. The Amazon app recommended “The Sopranos.”

    I am hooked, about to start the 5th episode of the first season, and it is intoxicating.

    It is also good to see all the actors from Goodfella’s getting some more work.

    Yeah, I know how it ends, but it has been long enough since it originally aired, I can really enjoy it.

    The first episode wasn’t quite enough to capture my attention, but it has grown on me.

     

  • Tivo Roamio Review

    Tivo Roamio Review

    A shocking admission is that I was not an early adopter of DVR technology. I was certainly aware of the products, and the capabilities, but for some reason, I didn’t take the plunge until they had matured.

    The early leader, Tivo wasn’t even my first DVR, but instead, since I had Dish network, I got their bundled DVR, and was satisfied.

    It wasn’t until we relocated to Arizona when we “splurged” on a Series 2 Tivo. The UI was intuitive, the way of finding programming was impeccable, and the integrated guide was a wonderful experience. We were hooked.

    In 2006, we took the plunge, and went HD, with the purchase of an excellent Pioneer Plasma display, and a Series 3 HD Tivo. Cox cablecards, and we were in HD heaven. With one failure of the box (replace under warranty), and a HD swap when the original drive failed (thanks to Weaknees) 10 years later it was still going strong. (more…)

  • Remembering Dad – Sailing

    Continuing in the remembrances theme, today I will share my recollections of sailing. My dad was an avid sailor, as in the wind and sails sailing, not power boating.

    Day Sailer, very similar to my memoryMy earliest recollections were fuzzy drives to the Palo Alto Yacht Club where my dad kept his boat(s), and times with the tides, sailing around the south bay, viewing the sloughs, and the various other sights from the water’s edge.

    I remember post sailing running around the board ways, the plan alleys, and the buildings of the Yacht Club while dad was doing the analogy to the 19th whole in golf.

    I remember the canteen in the club house, and the occasional hamburger that was purchased for me. Frozen patty, glue like bun, and mustard and pickles topping. To my 5 year old self, that was indeed a special day. (more…)

  • Roses in our Yard

    Roses in our Yard

    Upon moving into our new house last year, we knew there was work to do to the back yard. As I mentioned in earlier blogs, the yard was a mess when we bought it. It was clear that the owners spent nothing to maintain, let alone spruce up the house, and the yard was a dump. We quickly engaged the neighbor who runs a landscape business to clean it up, but it took almost a year to get to a good state.

    ground eye view of our rosesWe did replace the two fences that were about to fall down, and fixed the part of the yard that never dried up, but we needed a little color.

    There were several rose bushes along the back fence, and we added a few to fill in the gaps. One thing about roses, and one of the key appeals to them, is that they are almost impossible to screw up. Water them semi regularly, trim them (WAY) back every winter, spray for aphids, and they just grow.

    loyaltyEasy peasy.

    And then they bloom.

    We also found this wicked cool garden statue (or gnome). It is a meditating dog, and it’s title is “Loyalty”. It is already in our yard, watching over our plants.

    It is a fitting addition to our back yard.

  • Memories of Dad – Photography

    Memories of Dad – Photography

    One of the constants of my youth, and spending time with dad was his camera. Most often, he had a twin lens reflex camera (sadly, I don’t know if it was a Rollieflex, or one of the Japanese variants (like the Mamiya), but I do recall him loading the 120 medium format film, and doing his own developing and printing of black and white.

    Wherever we went, the camera went too. Hiking, to the beach, to the park, or whatnot, we were photographed. (more…)

  • Early Memories of my Father – The Outdoors

    Early Memories of my Father – The Outdoors

    As I continue this trip down memory lane, it is odd the things that stand out from my early memories. Today, I will talk about hiking and spending time outdoors.

    As I mentioned in the first post, we were in Sunnyvale, in the south San Francisco Bay Area. This was before Silicon Valley really rose to prominence, but the early whiffs of the greatness of that movement were in the air. Being in the area meant that we were close to a lot of outdoor recreation, and the population hadn’t grown to the density it is today.

    My dad enjoyed hiking and spending time outdoors. From a very early age, I remember hiking in the Santa Cruz mountains, places like Castle Rock for short trips, or Big Basin park for longer (all day) hikes. Of course now, my memories are fond, but I am sure that I was a complaining tot to have to walk all that distance. (more…)

  • A new series – My Father

    A new series – My Father

    Recently, we gathered in San Diego to celebrate my dad’s 83rd birthday. It was a wonderful weekend, and it was good to get (most) of the family back together. Alas, my father’s cognitive ability is slipping, and while he is accepting of the changes, it is difficult to see and handle.

    While I have some spare time, I am going to begin to document my recollections of growing up, and as much as I can remember.

    I am doing this for myself, and my family, so if the posts get too mundane, I apologize in advance. You have been warned.

    Introduction

    My parents settled in Sunnyvale California when they were first married. The stories I was told indicated that their house was surrounded by fruit orchards at the time, and slowly (or not so slowly) the neighborhood was developed.

    The infamous Blue CubeMy dad worked at Lockheed Missiles and Space in Sunnyvale (near the “Blue Cube”) and was in the computer department there. Of course, computers in the 1960’s were quite a bit different than today, and he worked on all sorts of cool things that he couldn’t talk about, as Lockheed was a defense contractor, and infosec was the name of the game.

    I remember from a young age, on payday, my mother would drive us down to Lockheed, and we would get his paycheck at the gate, and then head to Wells Fargo bank in Sunnyvale to deposit.

    Strange how this flotsam and jetsam of memory associations appear. I hadn’t thought about that in decades, yet it is quite vivid.

    Anyway, I remember the Lockheed open house, one day a year where the family of the employees visit, presumably all classified information was hidden and locked away, and we played primitive computer games, printed ASCII art on their line printers, and were in awe of the latest and greatest acquisition to their computer lab.

    These are fond memories, and I am glad to share. Enough for part one though. Next up – early memories.

  • Typical – Pricing

    CalculatorWith my abundance of spare time lately, I have been picking up some of the books I have on a variety of business topics. Books that I have skimmed or have done some spear fishing for in the past when I needed to quickly get up to speed.

    As one of the core tasks of product management, pricing has always been somewhat of a challenge. Not the act of setting prices, although at some places I have been, that can be quite cumbersome, the hurdles and barriers put in place. No, the challenge is more on how to determine the reference price, and what “value” your differentiation brings to the plate and how to put a price on that.

    One of the chapters in the book I am reading “The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing” is on the financial analysis around pricing. Cool, I have a degree in physics, and I love love mathematics. Right up my alley. So the big example is to calculate a break even table and graph for what happens when you reduce the price.

    Conceptually, it is simple, you figure out the variable costs per unit, the number of units, calculate the contribution margin, and then figure out how many more units you need to sell so that your price reduction is profitable.

    Me, being a physicist, mathematics geek, I look at how to make it more difficult than it is. I am building elaborate excel spreadsheets, doing regression analysis, and not quite getting it.

    Then I go old school. I get pencil and paper out, my trusty HP-41C out and manually do the math.

    Damn, I was making it far more difficult than it needed to be. It wasn’t even requiring algebra to get answers.

    Curse my geek-y side.

  • San Diego trip – Coda

    San Diego trip – Coda

    It was a wonderful weekend in San Diego, and apart from some serious rain Sunday morning, the weather was exemplary. About what you expect from the historical experience.

    We trekked down to visit my folks for my dad’s 83rd birthday celebration. My sister and myself were the family, as alas, our brother was tied up and unable to make the journey from Seattle.

    Tom Ham's LighthouseAs I documented, Saturday was jam packed with excitement, and capped off with a fabulous meal at Tom Ham’s Lighthouse restaurant, with probably the best view of the San Diego Skyline.

    Their menu was also exquisite, with my pan seared yellowtail being absolutely delightful.

    Sunday we awoke to some rain. Not torrential, but enough to make us think of indoor activities for the day.

    We started with an unusual breakfast. My sister recommended this small 24 hour Mexican restaurant. It was clearly housed in an old Taco Bell establishment, and my Machaca breakfast burrito was quite good (and way over-filling).

    Since Trader Joe’s opened at 8:00 AM, we took a quick trip there to pick up munchies for the return trip on Monday. It was the one time I had no trouble finding parking at a TJ’s store. Sunday at 8:00 AM.

    Our plans were to meet at the folks at 10:00 AM, and our likely destination was the Scripps Aquarium in La Jolla.

    When we got to the aquarium, we were met with the not unexpected crowds. The main parking lot was overflowing, so we drove down the hill to an overflow lot, and hiked the 1/2 mile or so to the aquarium entrance.

    The aquarium wasn’t huge, like the fabulous one in Monterey Bay, but it was interesting. It is laid out in two main exhibits, one a traditional tank environment, and one that is more kid friendly, with activities, and interactive displays.

    loggerhead sea turtleThe highlights were the kelp bed tank, a huge display of the ecosystem around the floating kelp, the loggerhead sea turtle that they rescued from a power station intake in New Jersey, who was too damaged to release back into the wild, and was approaching the age when its gender would become evident (apparently, around the age of 35 years, the length of the tail increases for male loggerheads).

    There were other notable sights to see, including the view from the back patio where the touching ponds were, and a fascinating display of sea horses and sea dragons.

    After the aquarium, we needed a lunch place, so Siri directed us to a nearby sandwich shop where we found parking (I was stunned that we easily grabbed two spots in the small parking lot), and were treated to a quite delicious sandwich.

    From there, we returned to our hotel to rest, with the plan to meet up again around 5 for a quiet evening watching a classic movie, and scarfing on Pizza.

    The Pizza came from Oggi’s Sports and Brewhouse, and was more than adequate. We then settled down to watch “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”

    I have seen the movie many times, and while it is at a deep level a very (very) disturbing story, it also is quite enjoyable, and was even spoofed by American Dad in an episode. One time, I need to count how much alcohol is consumed during the film. My liver hurts everytime just watching this movie.

    Around 10:00 PM, the evening wrapped up, and we said our goodbyes, knowing that we had a long drive home the following day.

    On Monday, we departed at 7:30, and as we approached Temecula, we caught some heavy rain. Fortunately, the traffic wasn’t too bad, and we made it through without incident.

    Finally, we got home at 4:30PM, picked up Garrett from the sitter, and the pack is complete again.