Too many shoes and pirates

I think I have a lot of shoes for a guy. I have two problems that lead to excessive shoe growth. The first issue is that I participate in a lot of activities that nessesitate specialized footwear. The second problem is that I don't like to throw away usable products and always prefer to keep a backup of all types of things in case I need it. I've used backup shoes for everything from river rafting to wearing after my main pair gets soaked by rain.

I'll run down the sets of shoes I have:

Sports(7): Golf, tennis, basketball, soccer, hiking, running (x2)

Casual(5): Sandals (x3), moccasins (x2)

Not so casual(4): Dress black, dress brown, casual black, casual brown

My collection has overflowed the shoe rack displayed on the right and now covers an additional shelf by the door. 18 pairs seems like a lot.

I think this large number of highly specialized shoes can be attributed to very effective marketing by shoe companies. Because of the ability to create a light, high-top shoe that is perfect for basketball means that I can't just wear my tennis shoes out on the court.

When I travel, I have a lot of problems trying to decide which pair to take with me. I always have to decide if I can pick a single pair that can do all the activities I plan on partaking (hiking, touristing, going out at night). I can normally cover most bases with a couple of pairs.

The famous Imelda Marcos likely lead the world in number of shoes (the wife of a former Phillipines dictator who had 3000+ pairs) almost certainly has me beat, but I'm probably in the upper half of shoe owners for my gender.

My favorite magazine, Smithsonian, has an interesting article on modern day pirates. It puts some perspective into how wide and untaimed the seas are even in this day and age. We've come a long way from the golden age of piracy back in the Caribbean when state-sponsored piracy was prevalent, but in war-torn countries and desolate provinces piracy is still present.

I love Smithsonian because I like its articles about world travel, US history, and American culture. They have some great articles on art as well. A lot of their articles are book chapters or reports that really dive into key issues past or present. The magazine does a great job of putting a human spin on history as it makes you realize that the "great" people of history dealt with very human issues. It also helps you get past the sweeping generalizations of 5th grade history and lets you dive into the human conflicts and pains of the past.

Bonds and Google defections

Barry hit number 754, so like him or hate him, he's only one home run away from the all time home run record. As with most things in life, I find a withhold my emotions and opinions about things until after events happen. The media and seemingly everyone else in this country has already given their opinions on this topic. It is amazing to me how political an issue like this can be. You have people like Curt Schilling (probably my least favorite major leaguer) saying this, that and the other about Barry as people try to get their opinions out there to prove their moral superiority. I guess there isn't much difference between this and all the other moral issues in society. Just to not change anything, I'll not add any gas to this fire other than to keep watching my team.

On Wednesday night, I went to the game against the Braves. It was a fun game to watch as Lowery dominated a tough Atlanta lineup. I also had a great time with my good friends Zach and Shreyes. The game finished 2-1 with a Pedro Feliz RBI and a Rich Arillia homer giving all the Giants offense. While Shreyes and his friend were more interested in the home run chase, it was great for me to get out to the ballpark for the first time since May and just relax and enjoy a ballgame. I missed just sitting around and talking about all the good old times when the Giants were good.

Tonight's game, (Friday) has been one of the more exciting games I've watched this season. It started out with Bonds' big home run and there have been tons of lead changes. I guess that's what happens when a very hittable Barry Zito runs into a good hitting Florida Marlin's team that also lacks good pitching. Its not over yet, but we'll see how this ends.

It has been good to see Pedro Feliz start hitting. The Giants could solve a lot of their problems if he could be a big run producing corner infielder.

A very good engineer from Code Green put in his 2 weeks as he is going to move to Google. It is really hard to see good people leave, but I am happy for him and I do see his new gig as very beneficial for him. I learned a lot from him as he helped me learn a ton about the Japanese language and Japanese culture. He was both a medical doctor and a good programmer and he definitely will be missed. I think he'll be a really great fit at Google.

Craigslist

So I've used Craigslist as a buyer, but until Sunday I never have sold anything. However, I've had a black office chair sitting around in my room that I haven't used since I left UCLA. It is really big, not comfortable and is really awkward to walk around. Correspondingly, this seemed like the perfect object to be the first thing I sell on Craigslist. Why not turn this chair that is taking up space into a couple of $20's.

I figured I would have to create an account and go through a lot of registration in order to post on Craigslist, but in fact you just click post, write your post, prove you are a human, and then click a response in an email you get. It was really easy and in 5 minutes my post showed up.

In 2 hours, I got my first response and by the end of the day, the chair was gone and I took down my post. I didn't even have to deliver it. I don't think I could have hoped for a better experience. Isn't the interweb great!

I can see why they have lots of problems with fraud because of the lightweight authentication of users, but given their place in society, I don't really think more authentication would make the experience any better.

It is midnight, I have to work tomorrow and it is hot in my room. Not a good combination, but a good reason to end this post and get some sleep.

New guitar strings, tennis strings, other strings

It is amazing how much better new guitar strings sound than several month old ones. It surprises me every time I change my strings. I haven't been playing a lot of guitar recently, so I've let the old strings go for about a year. After I changed them today, it really sounds like a new instrument. The sounds is so much brighter and clearer. If I can find the time, I'd like to polish off my guitar skills and hopefully get better. We'll see if that actually happens.

Speaking of strings, I also broke a set of tennis strings today. Unlike guitar strings, new tennis strings are not orders of magnitude better than older strings. They seem to maintain playability a lot better. Of course, there is no easy to judge thing such as sound quality for tennis rackets. Also unlike guitar, I don't really plan on increasing the amount of tennis I play from the approximately two times a month I currently play. I just like other forms of exercise more right now.

There are no strings in basketball, but that is one form of exercise that is really fun for me right now. I have written enough about that in my last post.

Strings are also very important in theoretical computer science. But I don't really think this is a forum to discuss ideas such as sets of sets, the empty set, and of course sets of empty sets. I know that stuff is important, but I've been out of school a year and that knowledge is amongst the first to go.

I thought this idea would make for a great blog post, but after I finished my not so interesting segment on tennis strings, I quickly realized I was grasping for straws while drowning. Oh well, next time I do a themed post, I'll have to be a bit more clever. I have this problem with being half way through a very average post, realize it is below standard, but then finish it and post it anyway. That's life, you can't be above average all the time, its statistically impossible.

But honestly, new guitar strings do sound better, that's why rock stars change them every week.

Ballin' and Bonds

Today my pickup basketball team won 4 full court games in a row. That must be some sort of record. I've been playing twice a week for almost 7 months now and I've improved a lot. I have a jump shot I can make, can bank the ball of the backboard, and can almost even dribble with my left hand. There still are a lot of things I can work on, like finishing under the rim (without getting my shots blocked), boxing out bigger people better, and not being so careless with the ball. I have way too many turnovers on careless passes.

In the gym where I play, there is one "big court" that is the official size played in high school here, and then you can play across the court in two "little" full courts. It is probably 30 more feet of running if you go down the "big court" than one of the smaller ones and over the course of an evening, it probably means you run another half mile or so. This gym is also not air conditioned, so it is a sauna all summer. I typically go through 2L of water in 90 minutes.

In spite of all this apparent pain, I really enjoy playing basketball. The people that show up are serious and good, so it has really improved my fitness level and knowledge of the game. It has been my "project" for 2007. It is amazing how much more you understand about a game by actually playing it. I had that same experience by playing IM football.

A good friend I worked with at Microsoft, Shreyes, is in the Bay Area this summer working for The Google. He and some of his buddies decided they were going to predict when Bonds would hit 755 and 756, and the planned to buy tickets to a block of Giants' home games. Well, they picked next Monday-Thursday, which as of yesterday, seemed a bit premature. Then Barry cranks two jacks today and he is 2 short of the record with 3 games to go before they have their tickets. So now it is looking really good for him. I tell you, MIT guys are smart, but I didn't think they could predict the future. I'm sure he had some really complicated mathematical model and it sure seems to work :).

"Two Buck Chuck" and of course golf

At work, we had a wine tasting extravaganza. It was completely blind and you tried one of the seven different types of wine and voted for your three favorites. This approach is quite simple and it can be applied to any party or tasting event. Its a really good way to get a lot of people drunk and have a good time.

Anyway, since I was organizing this, I thought it would be fun to throw in a bottle of "Two Buck Chuck" or Charles Shaw merlot. What do you know, it won. You can get it for $1.99 at Trader Joes and it consistently wins these sorts of contests. The truth is, most people aren't wine snobs, so they like stuff that actually tastes good and well, merlot tends to do well in this category. Charles Shaw Merlot is by far my mother's favorite wine (this also might have something to do with my family being pretty frugal). The other winner was wine from a vineyard of a friend from CGN. I'm sure it cost more than 2 bucks.

Ironically, I won a golf cocktail shaker, which leads me to the second half of this post...

I played a round of golf for the first time since Memorial Day, and I shot at 93, which is pretty good for me. We did play from closer tees which means you get to have a lot more easy second and third shots if you keep the ball on the fairway. I putted very well as I think I'm getting used to greens that are not as fast as the Stanford course. I also drove the ball well, considering I haven't gone to the range in some time. It was great to spend some time outdoors in spite of the fact I have some remnants of a cold.

Local TV Sportscasters and Microsoft Measles

After a very weak post yesterday, I will try to step things up a notch. Yesterday, I met a TV reporter on a CalTrain pub crawl, and she got me thinking about the following two question, if you could only date people of one profession, what would it be and could you ever do any better than a local TV sports reporter? (I'm not trying to offend anyone here, apologies in advance)

For me, there are three axes of evaluation that should be satisfied in to properly answer the question. First, there is the undisputed king of physical attractiveness. This is completely unavoidable in any evaluation of the opposite sex. Second, you can never say to much about raw (or even developed) intelligence. While you don't have to be able to factor large composite numbers in your head, you should be able to have a cogent argument about current events. Finally, the third axis is the highly ambiguous "funness" that is approximately, "is this person enjoyable to hang out with?".

Given that this question was highly biased to prove the hypothesis that you actually can't do any better than local TV sports reports, lets evaluate that profession first. To begin with, the first axis of success is guaranteed because of the unwritten world-wide law against putting people of "below average attractiveness" on TV. Lets advance to the second segment, where I believe there is the most room for failure. Since studio TV has melted into something close to "who can read the teleprompter" there is definitely room for a person of sub-average intelligence. However, reporter gigs are a bit different, especially local ones where you have to dig to find your own stories. On a deadlined basis, you have to generate a cohesive and interesting story on an event that quite possibly is not that interesting. I would assume that takes considerable intelligence. Also, since sports reporting is an overwhelmingly male, success as a female reporter takes a lot of guile. Finally, lets discuss the third leg of this tripod, funness. Sports reporters almost always like sports in some fashion, which at least in my book makes them interesting. Since you meet all sorts of interesting people over the course of your day, you have an abundance of good stories to tell. Also, it never hurts to be a celebrity, even if you are a small one (see me at the DARPA Grand Challenge last year).

I would challenge people to come up with professions that will so consistently satisfy the 3 axes. Given that I only have one acknowledged reader, I think I stand a good chance of winning on this challenge. There are a couple common ones I think don't satisfy them I will discuss below.

The obvious first choice is some profession that also guarantees axis 1. This includes things like "general purpose celebrity", "beauty queen", "dancer", and "pretty girl who doesn't have a formal profession". The problem with these profession types I would claim is they will suffer from a large deficiency in axes 2 and 3 because of a lack of excessive competition in their chosen careers and the fact that beauty makes people blind to other holes in your life and buys you second and third chances. Clearly axis one does not imply axes 2 and 3.

Since axes 2 and 3 most likely don't imply axis one, I think my claim pretty solid. Also, finding professions that across the board satisfy 2 and 3 are more difficult that you might think. Perhaps comedians would do it, but as a group there is no mandatory filtering of axis 1.

Now I will end this post with an anecdote about the only other time I've met a local TV reporter.

I was about 5 weeks into my Microsoft Internship and apparently there was a measles or cholera outbreak on the campus. As we walked across the street for some intern activity (basically an event where if you listened to MS propaganda, you got free Dove ice cream and didn't have to work for that hour), we were approached by a reporter and her cameraman. She wanted to talk to some "real" MS employees to hear their views about the outbreak.

She was quite possibly the most made-up person I've ever seen and by made-up, I don't mean fake but more like she probably has her own account specialist with Revlon. She did seem very nice and determined, but she was a bit terrifying underneath her layer of falseness. I'm sure that kind of stuff goes with the territory.

Given that none of us even knew there was an outbreak and the fact that being on the King County news was not one of my goals for the summer, I can safely say that we politely said no and walked away. So there really isn't much of a story here, apologies for the letdown.

You may argue with me that this story invalidates my point with respect to axis one, but I would counter that I limited the scope to sports reporters and there wasn't any Measles Olympics going down.

I probably should have some conclusion as this post is rapidly wandering down as many tangents as I can fit in this tiny window. I'm sticking with my core thesis until proved otherwise, but I would appreciate your comments. Have a good All-Star week and its time to watch the home run derby while searching for some reporters.

Irreverent Human Nature and All Stars

My good friend Erik posted a link in his AIM profile that if anything is great food for thought.

Ten politically incorrect truths about human nature

I'm not sure if "Truths" is the right word for the story. A better word is likely "theories", but that aside there are some interesting things in there. I enjoy reading things like this that make you critically analyze someone else's point of view and see how much of that applies to your life.

The article makes people seem like animals and clearly declares that reproduction is the highest goal for people because of their animalistic nature. I wouldn't necessarily disagree with either of these points given some of the people I've met. If you accept both of these claims as valid, then the rest of the article falls naturally out of those two given premises.

I am getting excited about the All-Star game coming to SF. I'm eager to watch the home run derby (I'm sure I'll tape it) as well as the actually game on Tuesday. I'm definitely not interested in going to the game given the excessive price mark-ups, but it will be fun to see it in San Francisco. I sort of view the Home Run Derby as one of the highlights of the event because of McCovey Cove.