INHALE OZONE

No, Ozone is not some new stock that I'm encouraging you to buy. I did own Inhale, until it changed names (and subsequently stock symbols) to Nektar. It's been a moneymaker!

OK, way off-topic there. What I meant to talk about was a smell that I love. I don't really care for rain all too much, although I think it is bearable when it is periodic and light. The scent of rain and most strongly after the rain has passed is one of the most refreshing known to my senses. I've heard in the past that the smell I'm experiencing is actually Ozone. The wonderful double-doubly-bonded O3 molecule which is also a longtime tagword for environmental problems.

Can anyone confirm that this is the smell? Or is it really the residual tar and hydrocarbon solids evaporating from the asphalt surface?

This is what I think about while running up and down 4 flights of stairs doing laundry during a freak thunderstorm. It was so beautiful outside this morning, but to make it seem even more beautiful we were given crap weather this afternoon. The doppler map was strange because the storm was traveling in an uncharacteristic East-West direction. Weather patterns here almost always travel the other direction - off of the great big blue (gray) Pacific Ocean.

UN ESPRESSO PER FAVORE

Was watching Burt Wolf on PBS today during lunch and he was touring around Trieste and eventually went to the Illy espresso testing labs and factory. 3 million cups per day served around the world. I wonder how this compares to Starbucks? Illy is more common in nicer hotels/restaurants, and probably has a larger dominance in Europe, whereas Starbucks has a stranglehold on the US market.

Makes me also wonder if Starbucks has the same sophisticated science laboratory that Illy utilizes. For some reason I doubt it. Illy actually captures a chemical fingerprint of the coffee when it comes in for taste testing and then they can compare this fingerprint to the actual delivery when it comes into the factory for processing. This way they can determine whether they are getting what they originally selected. Coffee is such a strong flavor that it's harder to pick up the subtleties that something like wine or cheese might release.

The founder claims to have been the first to use compressed air, as opposed to steam, in order to make a shot of espresso. Apparently, he scientifically determined the temperature at which more of the coffee flavor would be extracted. Somewhere between 170-230F, from what I recall.

A couple of weeks ago while I was in Utah for business I made a stop to the Salt Lake Roasting Company. Usually one doesn't think about coffee when in Utah because in general nobody drinks it. The per capita consumption has got to be dismal. Similar to their anticipated alcohol consumption. Regardless, SLC Roasting has their act together and offers an enormous selection of tasty blends and thoroughbreds.

I picked up a pound of coffee myself: 1/2-lb 100% Kona and 1/2-lb Indian Monsoon. I've had their Kona before and as all 100% Kona, is a very unique flavor and smoothness. I'm not a coffee afficionado, but this is one that is different enough in taste that almost everyone can differentiate it from normal everyday coffee. As for the Indian Monsoon, it tastes excellent as a coffee, but the smell is by far the strongest and most refreshing I have ever experienced. My father recommended this blend and so I gave it a shot. I'm hoping that his influence did not sway my opinion of these characteristics. Waking up to the smell of Indian Monsoon is bliss. I know that sounds politically incorrect...

POPE GANESHA LAMA IMAM ANGEL MORONI XVI

This might stand as the most ridiculous statement of the year:

"I would prefer a pope who is more open to other religions."
- Bystander in Vatican City

Yeah...I want a Mormon Pope. [Edit - Read: Is the Pope Catholic?]

On a serious note. I was having dinner with a couple of German friends tonight and they were in total shock when the John Paul II's replacement was announced. They bluntly stated that he's a cold, strict ultra-conservative church leader. Now, that made me think for a second. If they had announced a U.S. cardinal as the new pope I would have no clue as to what his history was and what his political/"moral" stance is. It wouldn't shock me, I wouldn't even react one way or the other. But, to know that people in Germany are shocked by this selection either stresses the influence this man has, or it stresses the influence the Catholic Church has over European countries.

It's not my religion, so my words are meaningless. People (the masses, no pun intended) don't get to vote on something like this. It shouldn't affect me directly either. If I was Catholic, maybe I would be concerned...or realistically, maybe I wouldn't be.

OPEN-SOURCE MORALITY

I've been reading C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity the past couple weeks, a chapter at a time every other day or so, just for curious reading. Came across an interesting end to a chapter titled "Sexual Morality":

"...The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronising and spoiling sport, and back-biting; the pleasures of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must not become. They are the Animal self and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it is better to be neither."

I, of course not being religious, am not one to judge, but I have the feeling that there are a disheartening number of people who go to church and fit that last value of "prig". I think this also prevents someone who claims to be "Christian" the effective ability to tell someone else they are morally wrong. We get this a lot in America, and on the news, etc.

I'm not trying to prove a point by using Lewis' statement, because frankly I think his moral comparisons are complete crap. His statement just made me think about what I've seen in the real world, and also what I see on TV every day. In general I feel like "morality" should not be a reserved word for Christianity or any religion, but an open-source concept for all of humanity.

WAVE OF COSMETICS

CBS-5 in the Bay Area had a great typo on their 11 o'clock news when describing the rogue wave tragedy that struck the Norwegian Dawn cruise vessel this week. The caption behind Ken Bastida was the following:

ROUGE WAVE

Below is the artist's conception...

AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY, PROFESSIONAL VOCALS

Japantown, SF - April 9, 2005

ON LIVE MUSIC

Upon driving back from Lowe's where I was buying some new 3-stage filters for my Pür faucet-mount water filter system (shameless attempt at scoring an umlaut into my blog), I was thinking a lot about Thievery Corporation and the injustice that was their live concert in SF.

I'm going to steal some comments of mine from the NoP msgboard in order to explain...

I will now refrain from the puns that have been overused to describe the concert in particular and this critically-acclaimed duo of turntablists. As was mentioned by a friend-of-a-friend, "Thievery sucks live." I agree with this, to a point.

The music was not bad, at least that which was soft enough as to not saturate my hearing system. Maybe it was the venue? Maybe it was the engineers? The duo themselves? The wafting fog of "righteous bush" in the air? But, it was by all accounts: TOO LOUD!

There comes a point in technology where making something bigger and better crosses the line. When the possibility of generating 5 Billion decibels is a reality, maybe it's better to hold off and keep the volume at a level where human physiology can still grasp the whole concept that is "music". There is a gray area between music and noise, and mis-use of a single variable (such as volume/wattage) can slide a soft Yanni work into a death metal tirade of pain.

Additional to the general loudness when Thievery actually got on stage, starting the concert 3 hours later with a generally very boring warm-up pair of DJs was in no way worth the cost of entry. The lights were turned up too much, and the music was only good enough to allow for some drug-induced care-free dancing freaks to solo out on the floor. People watching for 3-hours is fine when the atmosphere allows them to be more comfortable with themselves, but when the lights are that bright the freaks are less common.

The bass at the entrance to TC was so extreme that it was a fun effect for about 5 seconds. When it continued on it began to remind me of an episode of South Park where the kids go to a Worldwide Recorder Concert. The episode is also lovingly known as The Brown Noise because Cartman discovers a noise which causes humans to lose bowel control. The Regency nearly hosted such an event. Fortunately, only the hairs on my arms vibrated in a pseudo-massage line-dance tango.

Lighter note: The part I enjoyed the most was drinking the ice-loaded overpriced cocktails. If it wasn't for these, I would have written another paragraph about how bad the concert was.

I'll continue to appreciate the musical creativity in Thievery Corporation albums, but never again go to a concert where they are the headliners.

In contrast to this, I attended an intimate concert at The Bottom of the Hill where the genre was "post-punk" and I was more than impressed. The opening band was From Monument To Masses, which is composed of 3 talented and creative musicians, one who is a jrhigh/highschool classmate of mine, Francis Choung (drums, etc). The music started close to the time promised on the billing, the sound was just loud enough, and the passion was there in full.

I was impressed enough to purchase a T-shirt and regret buying a copy of their CD for myself. Next time or online maybe. Their music is a driving creative mix of socialist speech/rally samples played off of an iPod mini. The melt of the live instruments and sampling was unique and refreshing. The message of their music, and not necessarily the socialist aspect of it all, was powerful and inspiring to me.

The group after FMTM was a San Diego-based band, Tristeza. Their sound was a bit tighter/crisper than FMTM, but expressed a bit less passion. The sound overall was smooth, soft and sexy as opposed to FMTM's gritty, driving punches. I liked hearing these two bands in contrast. Variety is the spice of life. The third band, Hood, was the headliner but was too sloppy of a sound for me to really appreciate. They also had more vocals than the other groups, but it seemed too much a jumble of unintelligible english. They weren't bad, but compared to the other two it really wasn't a welcome style for my listening taste.

ON A QUEST

Most of them are describing his voice as "cheese-grater"...
http://www.minto.net/blogs/archives/41-Richard-Quest.html
http://www.mikeditto.com/archives/000165.php
http://www.dayorama.com/archives/000303.html
http://www.thereisnocat.com/showme437.html

I've always enjoyed Richard Quest's quips. Watching him either very late at night or early in the morning, depending on the time zone, has been entertaining for me while I'm on the road. It's almost as if he's a wordy and creative friend who shares worldwide news.

His teeth do stick out somewhat goofy, but I'm not judging his looks.

Example:
"In the next hour of the show we'll have the world's #1 dog show, Cruft's, which gets under way in the United Kingdom. What makes a do a top dog? We have an expert, we have a dog, and we have a career-threatening segment."

WALMART GLOBALIZATION

Ah...NPR. So I was listening today and Fresh Air with Terry Gross had Thomas Friedman on and was interviewing him about his new book, "The World is Flat". Early on he stated that if Walmart was a country that it would be the 8th largest importer of products from China. This fact blows me away. More-so than Gov. Arnold's campaign statement that if California were a country it would be the world's 8th largest economy. Whether these facts are true or not, and it's hard to get a good gauge of this, they do represent an enormity of money involved. His book was generally described as a description of the 3rd era of economics...and globalization. It explains from his point-of-view how globalization affects the world, businesses, and individuals in modern times.

Friedman's books on the middle east have always been extremely worthwhile reading. "Longitudes and Attitudes" and "From Beirut to Jerusalem" are two of the best journalistic accounts of the middle east that I've read. Granted, I haven't read too many of these, but the writing is both comfortable and exciting at times.

Surprisingly, he supported the recent Iraq war and reiterated this on the program. Not for the removal of WMDs, but to attempt at spreading peace and democracy throughout the middle east. This, in theory, will help create a lasting peace in the Israel-Palestinian conflict and allegedly has already helped reform Libya.

Listen to the interview in the link above if you get a chance. I think it's really worthwhile for today. Also, I'm going to recommend his book, even though I haven't even read it myself yet. I can almost anticipate that it will be informative and useful in understanding the world today and in the future.

Note: Let it be known that I boycott Walmart for the sole reason that they personally censor media materials such as CDs and DVDs. I think I bought a water boiler from them several years ago. Oh, and a cheap camera when I was stranded in Tennessee during the 9-11 days. But, no more. They can screw themselves for selling processed censored material only.

HELLO MY NAME IS DEEPAK

Had to call Lexmark a couple of times today and was surprised at the variety of names their technical support staff have. Even though it's obvious that I'm speaking with friendly service personnel from India, they always have very American/Western sounding names.

Today it was Harrison, Dana, and Steven.

This makes me wonder. A lot of the time, when people visit foreign countries, and specifically the US, they modify their name so that it's easier to pronounce by those who live locally. I might compile a list with my name in different languages. Any suggestions? I've already heard "Bai-Ren" (Mandarin), and I really don't think that would fly. Serious names only...

I CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUEL

With such a gentelmanly sport, I find it odd that they have such a thing named a "Sudden DEATH Playoff" in golf. Maybe instead they shoud have a wedge duel - joust style. Or maybe they can get all Kung-Fu and choose other styles like Eagle and Monkey or Ostrich.

Speaking of animals, props to Tiger (who ironically also is a Kung-Fu style) for winning the Masters again. His reign of domination continues year-after-year despite the sexual distractions that his new Scandinavian model bride brings to him.

Will be a moment in golf to watch Michelson put the jacket onto Woods...

ARSININE

It's good that I always arrive at the airport far earlier than most people. The links below provide good examples in support of my arrive-early-always-make-flight (AEAMF) philosophy...

http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=5&sid=197556
http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=39&sid=197594
http://www.sltrib.com/search/ci_2645705

My flight from SLC to SFO was delayed by approximately 20min while waiting for passengers who were held up by this security fiasco. The eavesdropping I did while sitting in 1D on the Canadair Regional Jet resulted in some inside information from these people. The woman sitting in 2D was noticably shaken by the incident. She explained how she was in the same general vicinity as the TSA agent who passed out from the fumes. Her main concern was that it was a biological agent and that maybe she was going to contract something. This raised my blood pressure, but I kept reassuring myself that the incubation period for something, even if it were Anthrax, would be much longer than the journey I was going to take in the recirculated air environment of the jet. Whew. Or so I think. I'm not a biological weapons expert.

So, I was able to relax and sleep through most of the flight until viewing the San Mateo Bridge's 9-miles of flat travel below me. So glad they are saying that it wasn't Arsine. I'm also puzzled why this article is only on local news, yet my parents were able to see it on television in Bakersfield. CNN Headline news possibly? And then since it was a dud it was taken off? Curios.

STATIC FIREWORKS

Static is the last thing you'll hear when you see me...
-2-Pac Shakur

The air is so dry in Utah. It's a void of moisture. My sinuses shrivel and agitate, crying for some dihydrogen monoxide. There's one bright side to the missing humidity here. Late at night after lights-out I saw little flashes of light as I tossed and turned in my hotel bed. I would trail my hand along a pillow and see bursts of orange-white spark in no apparent order. Static electricity can be beautiful. But it can also be dangerous. Say for example I had doused my body in gasoline before turning to bed. See? Not cool. The ignition source is already there. I'll have to remember not to play with flammables, and especially not to dunk my body in them or take a nail polish remover shower. Filling up gas in my rental car even got me paranoid here. I've seen the videos of gas-filling disasters.

HORNET'S NEST

Work today reminded me of this song. Stepping foot into that building today was like an extra line. I'm just glad it's over.

Hornet, hornet,Whatcha gonna do about a hornet?
Hornet, hornet,Whatcha gonna do?!
Hornets' Nest, Hornets' Nest,The Middle East is just a crazy Hornets' Nest.
Hornets' Nest, Hornets' Nest,Whatcha gonna do?!
Uzbekistan.
Hornets' Nest.
Jalalabad.
Hornets' Nest.
East Sudan.
Hornets' Nest.
Mongolia.
Hornets' Nest.
London, England.
Hornets' Nest.
Miami, Florida.
Hornets' Nest.
The whole damn thing.
Hornets' Nest.
Put on a protective suit, dive straight into the Hornets' Nest.
Search for the queen hornet, drink up her delicious honey.
Zzz, Zzz, Zzz, Zzz.
I said stop!

-Performed and written by Tenacious D

PROVO-ALONE

INTRODUCTION:
I've decided to start writing more to this blog. Eventually the entries will be moved to a site that is more user-friendly to myself and something I have more control over. I don't really care for the bar at the top of the page.

Additionally, while gazing out the window of the CRJ50 en-route to SLC from SFO, I realized that I might have a lot more to share about places I travel to for work than I originally thought. This trip is no exception and I've only been in the state for 3 hours.

PROVO:
Provo is Salt Lake City's smaller and more religious sister to the South. It's the home of BYU, a school known for its 'honor code' where college girls are forced to tear down the poster of Usher and tack up a life-sized LDS artist interpretation of Jesus in campus housing. It's a place where you can be kicked out of college for such a minor incident such as talking to a member of the opposite sex in your church-funded dormitory room. It's also a place where a very large number of the entering student body are already in their mid-20s and married with children. You'd think that in a city built as a religious college utopia that it would be void of problems. I admit, this place is very clean. A bit too clean. But driving the 1-mile from the freeway to my Marriott (did you know they were Mormon too?) I saw homelessness. Being homeless in the cold-desert that is Utah has got to be brutal. Granted, it's a difficult life any way you look at it.

CRJ50:
I've mentioned to friends/people in-person many times about the planes I fly on, their quirks, pros/cons, favorites, etc. Today I was on a suprisingly small CDJ50 - Canadair Regional Jet. In the past the SFO<->SLC route has been dominated by the 737/A319 class, and it still may be. Since SLC is a Delta hub, I'm sure that they as a company still use larger transporters. A CDJ50 only holds 50 passengers. It's a sleek, fast, thin and quiet jet aircraft. It's the kind of aircraft I would imagine a rich business executive owning and using several times per week. Did I mention it's quiet? Yes I did. Almost too quiet. I don't even need to don my Bose ANC Headphones. And I love them headphones.

DOSIMETER:
I wear a Landauer Luxel Film Dosimeter to measure whole-body radiation I recieve while on-the-job. In the past the most dose I had been measured to recieve was nil to very little. The "very little" was always due to my dosimeter being exposed to the airport security x-ray screening. A trend was noticed recently when the dose was analyzed across all employees in my company. There's an upward trend of dose and it is most likely caused by the x-ray detection equipment in airports. They have now told us to carry these film badges on our person instead of leaving them in our bags. Note: Do not take repeated trips through the airport x-ray detector conveyor. It is not a toy. It will not find your cavities or broken bones very well. I have another story on radiation exposure which I may or may not mention here in the future. My what a teaser.

CARL HAYDEN H.S. ROV TEAM:
Reading a Wired magazine I picked up at the airport was a great story about a group of 4 immigrant students living in West Phoenix and how they triumphed over a team of MIT students in an underwater remote operational vehicle contest at UCSB. It's a triumphant story about the Carl Hayden H.S. Falcon Robotics ROV Team, but it has a bittersweet ending. Due to economic standing and citizenship status, these students cannot afford and cannot attain scholarships in order to attend college. Each of them came to the US by illegal means when their families crossed the Mexico-US border when they were very young. I am hoping that some kind of scholarship fund gets set up to assist these students in their future. I'm going to look that up and see if anything is being done. One student specifically has a genius quality to him and deserves much more than what the article expects.

I guess I get a little bit sentimental concerning this specific story because I always took pride in extracurricular activities. Especially those that required engineering. I remember staying afterschool once trying to reproduce sonoluminescence. We thought we were successful, but there was no physical evidence. Geeky, but I think being industrious can be more important than grades or what school you came from.