Halloween 2002

Just because this rocks and I think I may be developing a youtube problem.

Danger, I now have a camcorder

Yes, it's true. Jenn and I are now proud parents of a camcorder. A Sony DCR DVD-105. It's a low end DVD recording Camcorder but so far I think it's really awesome... I love technology!

This silly little video is just a first attempt to see what the camera and editing software can do.

Enjoy!

My old golf swing

Just testing out some youtube things.

Behold! New Carpet

For those of you who were not familiar with the previous carpet I realize that some of the effect will be lost but too bad!

Apple Store Shenanigans

Will, a friend of mine, works at the Apple Store in Minnesota. This was made by a customer in the store and he left it on one of the Macs. It gets funnier every time you watch it so view it at least twice!

The Desire to Create

I am uncertain if this is an irrational desire or a rational one, but every now and again I get a nagging feeling that I should build something. This feeling somewhere in my gut that I should saw, drill, nail, sand, varnish, create. The problem with this feeling is two-fold: first, the urge is not very specific as to what I should build; second, I have a very limited skill set for actually building anything.

My dad is handy. He has the tools and the means to create. I grew up watching him fix and build things. He built a porch for our house. He finished our basement. He has "helped" me start and finish countless projects around my own house. I always watch what he does, trying hard to learn his secrets. I have picked up just enough to be dangerous. I am notorious for starting a project and then realizing, once I have gotten past the point of no return - punched a hole in the wall, peeled back the carpet, disassembled various electrical or plumbing components - that I don't have the tools or the know-how to finish what I started. So I pick up the phone and call for Dad.

I don't mean to say that my Dad is the world's greatest handyman - more than once I have stopped him before he cuts that last piece of expensive molding too short or he starts to drill holes in the wall all willy-nilly. No, it's not that he's perfect, just fearless. I admire that. I think that my dad and I make a perfect team. I am a good supervisor (a role previously held by my grandfather, late in his life). I know when something makes sense and when it doesn't. My Dad also has this ability to think through problems but we both think just different enough that we often stop one another from making the big mistakes. We compliment each other's thought processes. We talk through our ideas okay; it's often more like a debate than a conversation but we both know how to argue and thankfully we have learned how to listen.

I hope to one day pass along to Sonja the things my dad has taught me.

Be stubborn when you think you're right, but be contrite when you find out you're wrong.

Nyctohylophobia Haiku

A forest at night,
Nyctohylophobia
All fear and no light.

Link to a friends blog

A friend of mine who now is living in Singapore has a blog and man o' man does he have some funny video clips... Enjoy!

www.snowless.com

The Pressure Builds

We live in an older home, built in 1938, and apparently folks back then didn’t see much of a need for a large bathroom. Our main bathroom is tiny, but it has served us well for the year and a half we have lived in the house. There may not be many cabinets or much counter top space… wait, there are no cabinets and no counter tops. Just a modest glass shelf, and a medicine cabinet which doesn’t open up all the way due to a do-it-yourself tile job that prevents the mirror from swinging open fully. The back of the toilet is always crowded with bathroom paraphernalia – combs, brushes, towels… etc. My knees almost touch the side of the tub when I am perched on the throne. The bathroom door, in sympathy with the medicine cabinet, does not fully open if there are towels on the towel rack or anything hanging from the hooks on the back of the door. To top off the whole claustrophobic nightmare, the bottom 2/3 of the bathroom is tiled with Pepto-Bismol pinkish tiles; sadly this color scheme matches the floor tile in there as well.

My relationship with this room has been strictly utilitarian. I try not to spend much time in there as I can get a little claustrophobic from time to time. There is a baby on the way, however, and that baby will need to be cleaned on occasion, and that has put me into sanitize mode.

Sanitize mode is a scary place, especially if one is standing in my shower. Since the tub is older, the enamel has begun to wear away meaning that water doesn’t just slip right down the drain anymore. The drips and drops and moisture like to puddle up and then slowly evaporate. This is fine by me except that it tends to leave behind a nice pinkish mildew (yes, I know it matches the tile but it's really not very sanitary). So, for the health of my pregnant wife and soon to be child I decided I would squash my mild fear of tight spaces and clean the tub.

Now there are a variety of tub and tile cleaners available on the market. Some work better than others. Some foam up, some need to soak and then you scrub, some require plastic gloves and a gas mask. Not wanting to marinate my pregnant wife and unborn child in a toxic stew of corrosive chemicals I was searching for an alternative cleanser. Bon-Ami, basically baking soda, works great but takes time and lots of elbow grease. I needed something fast, effective and environmentally friendly. Then it struck me - the power washer!

My father-in-law loaned us his power washer last summer to enable us to quickly strip the paint off of our back porch (which, by the way, we still haven’t gotten around to doing). I thought to myself, it’s just high-pressure water…what could be more environmentally friendly than water? If it can strip paint away from wood surely blasting mildew from worn tile and enamel would be a snap.

So I hooked the hose up to the outside spigot and dragged it through the kitchen and hallway which lead to the bathroom. I had the power washer sitting in the sink (I thought that it may leak some so it should rest in the sink). For those that have never used a power washer before it’s a great piece of equipment. You plug it into an outlet which drives a motor which builds up air pressure in the tank. A hose is attached to the side of the tank to feed water into this high-pressure environment. Then there is a trigger operated gun/wand, much like you’d find at a coin-operated car wash; this is the business end of the washer.

I hooked up the hose, plugged in the washer and fired it up. The noise level was pretty fantastic. The air pump is loud and the water, as I had predicted, was leaking out at the connection between tank and hose… maybe leaking isn’t quite right, squirting out in a small stream is perhaps a better description, but it was in the sink so no harm no foul. I pulled the shower curtain to the side and boldly told my bathroom mildew to say ‘ello to my little friend (a la Scarface). With a pull on the trigger an ultra-concentrated stream of water shot out of the nozzle. It was working! I could see the mildew disappear right before my eyes. Aim and fire! Voila, a clean tub. I methodically worked my way around the tub and drain, up the tile, around the built-in soap dish. It was a truly fantastic sight.

About midway through the operation, however, I realized there was some blow back - while the water was blasting away the scum, it was also creating quite a bit of mist. This mist was similar to the mist one might find at the base of a large waterfall; the type of mist you can barely feel but within seconds it has coated everything and soaked it through and through. I turned my gaze away from my now sparkling tub to stare at the rest of the bathroom and it was like a Salvador Dali painting. Everything was dripping. The lights, the mirror, the toilet, all were glistening with a fine coating of environmentally friendly water. Not only was there the water but the pressure seemed to blast away some of the caulking around the tub and bit of grout was now missing from between some of the tiles.

I had passed the point-of-no-return, however, and finished the job. I mopped up the floor with several towels. I still have to re-caulk the tub and tiles. In the end, the tub was clean and I was glad that my bathroom was as small as it was because my pond would have been a lake and, instead of clean up with a few towels, I would have needed a sump pump.

I promise only to bathe baby with a soft and supple wash cloth…

Monday, May 15 2006

Jenn and I had another baby class over the weekend. Our first was on the birthing process. The class was 8 hours long and very detailed. This weekends class was called all about baby. Its intent was to give some guidance as to the rearing of a baby after first-time parent head home from the hospital. This class was 4 hours long.

It seems like the lengths of the classes are backwards to me. After all raising a child goes on far longer than birthing one...

The good news is that I now know how to swaddle a baby, wash a baby and change a diaper... well, actually I know how to swaddle a doll, wash a doll and put a diaper on a doll. I am sure the real deal will be very similar.

Where Have I Been?

As the post right below this will attest I have been busy with school for the last few weeks. Had to write a book review on a Econ based book. It's long and likely not all that interesting - but again, I took the time to write it so I may as well post it.

Baby countdown is in full effect. It's getting very close now. Just a few more weeks to go and then Ta Da we will have a baby!

I have So much to do between then and now. At least it's raining out today so I don't need to bother with yard work.

The Wal-Mart Effect Book Review

The Wal-Mart Effect by Charles Fishman examines how America’s largest retailer is transforming the way companies conduct business and its overall effect on the American economy. Before beginning this book I have to admit that my attitude towards Wal-Mart was not exactly what one would call friendly. I have not shopped at a Wal-Mart store in over a decade; I tend to believe that they do more harm than good in a number of areas, not the least of which are the environment and the economy. So I began reading Mr. Fishman’s book with some personal baggage. I had gleaned from the dust cover that this book was not a manifesto on the evils of Wal-Mart nor was it a tome singing the praises of Sam Walton. The dust covers states, “Fishman has discovered how Wal-Mart brings prices down so dramatically and what the remarkable payoffs and high costs of those ‘everyday low prices’ really are.”

Indeed, the book opens with a remarkable example of how Wal-Mart’s drive for low prices helps to save millions of trees. Prior to 1990 when you bought deodorant it came packaged in a cardboard box. Wal-Mart, in its quest to keep costs low for their customers, saw the box as an item that was really just waste. It added cost to the product but no value. Generally everything that was printed on the box was also printed on the plastic container of deodorant inside the box. The first thing the customer did when they got the deodorant home was to tear open the package and discard the box. The box added extra weight in shipping the product. The box was waste and it had to go. So, Wal-Mart asked its antiperspirant suppliers to leave out the box. This one seemingly small change saved millions of trees. Perhaps my loathing of Wal-Mart had been misplaced. My curiosity was piqued.

As I worked my way through the book many things jumped out at me – for instance, the size of Wal-Mart. I had always known Wal-Mart was big, but it took some facts and figures to really put it in perspective for me.

• There are 3,811 Wal-Mart stores in the United States (p.6)
• 93% of American households shop at least once a year at a Wal-Mart store (p.6)
• Wal-Mart is the world’s largest private employer - 1.6 million employees (p.7)
• Half of all Americans live within five miles of a Wal-Mart store (p.5)
• In the United States Wal-Mart is the number one seller of:
• Pet food and supplies (p.108)
• Home furnishings (p. 108)
• Routine apparel (p.108)
• In the United States Wal-Mart sells:
• 16% of all groceries (p.4)
• 21% of all toys (p.108)
• 23% of all health and beauty products (p.108)
• 27% of all house wares (p.108)
• Wal-Mart’s U.S. sales are equal to $2,060.36 spent per household per year (p.6)
• Wal-Mart’s average profit on $2,060.36… $75.00 (p.6)
• A typical Wal-Mart checker scans six to eight items per minute (p.13)

According to Fishman this huge scale is what makes “the Wal-Mart effect” so powerful. It’s the huge volume of products sold through Wal-Mart stores that enables them to pressure deodorant suppliers (as well as all their many other suppliers) to change the way they do business.

As I read on I begin to see Wal-Mart in a more neutral light. No longer did they seem to be the evil despots of capitalism, but rather just a very successful business which, unlike many corporations, strives to keep their costs low so they can pass that savings along to their customers. Indeed, I was surprised by the apparent absence of any sort of corporate greed. The book doesn’t talk about lavish birthday parties thrown for executives’ wives on strange exotic islands. In fact, just the opposite comes out in this book. The absolute austerity of the Wal-Mart corporate community took me by surprise.

Fishman writes about corporate offices furnished with lawn chairs likely left behind by some potential supplier to Wal-Mart. He goes on to tell us how many of the executives bring office supplies from home to help keep costs down. I began to feel my anti-Wal-Mart position fade a little bit. I found myself feeling a strange affinity for this mega-retailer. It was refreshing to see a wildly successful company not acting like it. Here is Wal-Mart, the most dominate retailer in the US, and it requires its vendors to supply them with an 800 number to call or be willing to accept collect calls from Wal-Mart.

So what’s the catch? Why have I thought ill of Wal-Mart for so many years? There had to be something I was missing. As I continued to read Fishman pointed it out that there is, indeed, a catch.

“People say Wal-Mart is making $10 billion a year. But that’s not how the people inside the company think of it. If you spent a dollar, the question was, how many dollars of merchandise do you have to sell to make that $1? For us, it was $35.” – Ron Loveless, one of Sam Walton’s early managers (p.23)

Wal-Mart sells its goods at razor thin margins. This is the philosophy which has propelled them to the top. The problem with operating under razor thin margins is that a company is forced to turn a profit by selling large volumes of its goods, which can have unintended consequences.

Fishman provides a good example of some of the problems that low margin/high volume items can present. Wal-Mart sells Atlantic salmon fish fillets for $4.84 per pound. Not too many years back salmon sold for $15 to $20 per pound. What happened to make this fish so affordable? Salmon farming happened. The ability to raise fish within a controlled environment within the ocean enabled fish farms to spring up. These farms allow huge quantities of salmon to be produced. This massive worldwide increase in the supply of salmon has helped to push the cost of salmon down year after year. Still, Wal-Mart sells it for less than the competition.

This dynamic is possible because of the scale that Wal-Mart brings to bear on the marketplace. In fact, salmon farming is the second largest export industry for Chile when just over a decade ago Chile exported exactly zero pounds of salmon. The problem isn’t that Chile is raising fish for consumption by Americans, nor is it that Chile plans to double its output of salmon in the next few years; the problem lies in how Wal-Mart is making its low prices possible.

If Wal-Mart were to purchase the salmon from a U.S. supplier, the supplier would include in the cost of the product to Wal-Mart everything that goes into the production of the salmon filet. This cost would include wages, benefits, environmental safeguards, safety considerations, etc. However, raise the same fish in Chile and not only are wages lower and benefits rare, if existent at all, but also there are no regulations about farming of salmon off the country’s coastline. Perhaps this lack of regulation is due to the relative newness of the industry in the country, or perhaps not, but the point is Chilean salmon farmers are not required to pay the (immediate) cost of killing thousands of acres of seafloor with huge deposits of salmon droppings. The salmon are raised in large netted areas just off shore, and this concentration of fish has a detrimental effect on the ocean floor directly beneath the nets. The cost associated with the destruction of this valuable resource, however, is not included in the cost when Chile sells its salmon to Wal-Mart.

As I continued reading I happened upon another interesting bit of information. Despite Wal-Mart’s dominance across a wide array of consumer goods, the U.S. government does not include any information from Wal-Mart in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) calculations. At first this omission didn’t really mean that much to me, but as I read on I began to realize the implications of not including Wal-Mart in this calculation. By not including Wal-Mart in the CPI we tend to get an inaccurate depiction of what is happening with inflation. The CPI figure assumes that the average American family is spending $100 per month on groceries, but due to the effect of Wal-Mart’s low prices this family is really only spending $85 dollars per month. Now, multiply this $15 difference by 100,000,000 families and then by twelve months and all of a sudden the CPI is off by millions upon millions of dollars. This miscalculation can lead to poor monetary decisions by the Federal Reserve Bank which, in part, bases its decision to raise or lower the prime lending rate on the CPI. The discrepancy can also lead to poor decisions made by politicians regarding public policy.

The book ends with Fishman making a call for more openness and transparency for all corporations, noting that Wal-Mart, as well as most major U.S. companies, keeps much of their financial and business-related information secret. Some of the information being withheld really holds no value to competitors but is crucial for economists and policy makers in order to help better plan and regulate how business grows in the United States.

Although the book does not directly call for the break-up of Wal-Mart under Anti-trust laws, it does reference the break-up of AT&T as means of illustrating the ubiquity of the company. Such marketplace dominance can lead to non-competitive behavior within the marketplace. Wal-Mart appears to exploit its powerful position not to line the company’s pockets with dollars, but rather to put a few extra pennies in the pockets of their customers. Ironically, to save these few extra cents it has become increasingly common for Wal-Mart’s suppliers to look overseas for a cheaper labor supply to help keep cost low to help keep Wal-Mart happy; thereby undermining the purchasing power of the very customers it seeks to serve.

By the end of The Wal-Mart Effect my attitude towards the company has cooled to more of a neutral stance. I no longer view Wal-Mart as a soulless, grasping empire with no regard for the environment or the economy. I still don’t intend to shop there, however, and believe it prudent to carefully factor the Wal-Mart effect in to national economic and public policy, as well as to monitor the company for any non-competitive behavior in the future.

Mayday

The nesting instinct has taken over. Just put on the third coat of paint in the nursery. Getting ready to pull up all of the carpet upstairs so that new carpet can be laid. Then planning on moving the office from the upstairs down into the fourth bedroom. Not sure what will happen with the couch down there. Anyone want one? It has a hide-a-bed.

I have so many things all happening at once right now. Work is busy, life is busy, but things remain good. Sure there are panic points. How are we going to survive for 3 months on 1 income? How are we going to pay for Sonia's college? Day care Day care Day care.... Have to pick a Physician for little baby. How do you change a diaper? Am I going to be a good parent...

Despite my anxiety closet, I feel good today. Life is moving quick but I feel like most of my cylinders are firing.

Twenty, 19, eighteen , 17, 16, fifteen, 14, thirteen, 12, 11, 10, nine, eight, seven, six, 5, four, 3, 2, one zero.

We have lift off. Your life as you know it is about to become a tiny point dangling somewhere in your past. Soon you will be orbiting around your daughter at 1,2000 m.p.h. Your hair will begin to grey and continue to fall out. None of this will matter, however, because the horizon that you are racing towards is not the one you ran at in your youth. This is a new vista, a new life, a shared life... This is a family...