Rail of a tale

Made a minor improvment to my condo over the past couple of weeks.... although I say minor, it was quite a lot of work. I'm still not a huge fan of the oak. I was looking for something in a lighter color that would match more to the white molding and light colored wood of my kitchen, but I do have to say it looks pretty good.

The fun part was surprising mom of course. She loves it so I think I'll be building one at their house in the near future.

Clearflow from maps.live.com.

So Microsoft recently released this new technology that added to their mapping system that gives you the ability to route you around traffic backups that occur on the highways. Previously, mapping systems could not do this because there was no guarantee that the surface streets would have any less traffic than the highways. How microsoft implemented this (apparently) is they analyzed traffic data on surface streets around seattle and came up with models that are supposed to help predict when / where backups would occur on city streets. Then they can use this model to generate information that would allow their route calculation engine to determine which route would get you to the destination the quickest.
Sounded like a good idea to me so I thought I would give it a try. Here are my results:
Try #1: Clearflow cost me 20 minutes - Didnt calculate the time it would take to get through a timed-onramp light.
Try #2: Ontime
Try #3: 20 minutes late - No signification cause... just heavy traffic along the route.

Overall it has cost me more time than it has saved. Although it does seem to work sometimes, I wonder if it is a fluke or if the "model" they are using is actually correct.

Why I wont use it in the future? If it can't anticipate on-ramp blockages then I have no need for it in a city where you need to eventually get on the freeway. Additionally, I wonder how this system scales up nationally. If Microsoft cant accurately predict how traffic is going to flow it it's own city, how could it work in other cities?

To me it seems like money was spent on a technology that Microsoft wanted to get back so the solution is more "hype" than anything else. If it doesnt work, why make it available?

Home improvement

Well it has been over a month since I blogged last.... not that anybody reads this thing but me and those I specifically send it to. lol.
So I have these lists I keep of things to do in my life. There are 2 lists - "hard" to-do and "easy" to-do. Lately I've been feeling ambitious and trying to get a few things done off the list. 2 of the major items are my final big home improvement projects:

• Tile my kitchen counter backsplash
• Replace the wooden hand rail in my upper hallway.
  

Neither one of these tasks are a whole lot of fun. For my counter backsplash the big problem is choosing a tile design. I've been to a few tile stores but nothing has really striked me a "perfect" for my setup. The other thing I'm worried about is doing too-fancy of a backsplash for my linoleum countertop. Of course I could put a nice stone tile in as a countertop, but I think that would be overkill and not necessarily cost-effective.

For the upstairs railing, what I really need to do is pull the existing railing out and buy wood in the same proportions to match what the existing railing looks like... then hopefully put that railing together with only a few modifications. Seems relatively easy until you realize that I only have a chop-saw. DOH! My kingdom for a few good woodworking tools.

The other fun thing coming up is Jen's 30th birthday party. We spent last weekend trying 5 different martinis in anticipation of the big event. All were good, but we discovered it is difficult to try a bunch of different martinis and stay sober at the same time. :) (especially when they are really good!)

Fun in the sun in San Francisco

Well... I don't know about sun, but at least it was fun. Jennifer and I went down to San Fran last weekend and had a pretty good time. (taking me was my 30th birthday present from Jennifer) It rained and was windy for most of the time which was ironic because the weather up in Seattle was great.

Highlights /Lowlights of the trip:

• Met up with family and friends all weekend and it was great to see everybody.
  
• The restaurant we went to on Friday night had great sangrias.
  
• Saturday was the shopping day. I was thinking of going to Alcatraz but didn't want to fight the bad weather so I went shopping with the ladies. I got myself a new skirt and some new shoes! (just kidding on the skirt)
  
• We went out to a restaurant on Saturday night that had flights of wine. Jennifer, Elena, Kevin and I all had a flight and dinner which was really good.
  
• Jennifer and Elena decided to split the "ravioli" appetizer for dinner on Saturday night - They each ended up with 3 raviolis. (the plate only came with 6 normal raviolis!) At least they tasted good. :)
• After dinner on Saturday night, we went to an Irish pub to have another drink. I mistakenly decided to mix my previous wine with Guinness and payed for it on Sunday with a hangover.
• On Sunday we saw the sights: Lombard street; Cable Car; The waterfront; Pier 39 with the sea lions; and Golden Gate bridge.

Overall it was really a lot of fun. I forgot how much I love San Francisco. I'm also really amazed at how well the public transportation system works. Emphasis on how screwed up Seattle is without a train system like most other major cities have. Pictures Here

To Caucus or not to Caucus

After a little prodding from Jennifer, i decided to try out this caucus thing. My district had our caucus at a local elementary school. Overall it was an interesting experience that I would probably do again. I did discover a few things though:

1. Some people are strange. I guess "different" is anything that is not what you are, but I must say... there were some people here who were definitely different than anybody I have ever met.
   
2. The election process has gotten way overcomplicated. Y'know, for a simple thing like counting votes, it was way over complicated.... Or maybe it was complexly worded. Anybody have a "Caucusing for dummies" book lying around?
   
3. The democratic caucus is more political than anything else. I cant tell you how many times I heard the phrase "Hillary cant win against McCain"... or ..."Republican's will come out in numbers to make sure Hillary will lose"
   

The 3rd conclusion above is what really gets me. Why cant we be voting for the most qualified candidate? If both parties voted that way, couldn't we be reasonably assured that a good candidate will be elected? Furthermore cant we be assume women will come out in numbers with Hillary as the candidate as well? Last I checked women are more democratic than men.... so wouldn't it be likely to assume that a woman candidate would drive the female gender to "come out in numbers" for the democratic candidate??

Obviously I'm no political strategist, but I feel that people tend to rely on previous successes to ensure future success. From what I've seen it seems success favors the risky.

Tide to Go Instant Stain removal

This thing is great. I sound like a commercial for this product but it really does work well. I spilled coffee on my nice white pants monday morning and I had a review with a few of my account managers in the afternoon. I wasnt sure how this thing would work, so I tried a little bit on the stain and it worked great! It is almost like an eraser for coffee stains. (except for the fact that your pants are wet for 20 minutes afterwards) I used the it on the rest of the stain and it was completely gone. The other thing I like is that it is small and I can keep it in my computer bag.

Now if it could remove smells I'd never have to wash my clothes again!

Problems with Managing a Team

Part of my time during the week is to manage a soccer team. The managing part of the team isnt too difficult (collecting dues, finding players) It does take time, but most of the time I dont mind. The really tough part of managing a team is overcoming problems with attendance. On a weekly basis, we have ~ 30% of the players on the team that fall into one of the following two categories:

• Show up 15-20 minutes late.
• Dont show up at all.

This causes two major problems:

• Getting coordinated enough to prevent goals from being scored on us until the late players arrive.
• Providing enough subs for the players on the field, but not having too much. (everybody on the team pays money to play, so nobody wants to sit on the sidelines too much)

I've found getting this right to be an extremely difficult thing to do, mainly because of basic human tendancies. Most people have an optomistic view of how long it will take to get there. Additionally, and possibly unconsciencely, they figure "if I'm late, I wont waste any time waiting for others". The major problem here is that it is a negatively re-enforcing tendency. Those who are a little late, end up waiting longer for those who are alot late... and therefore being more late the next time around.

The other problem I've mentioned is players who say they are going to make it, but dont. Most people are pretty good about posting their absence when they are away.... but unfortunately, pretty good doesnt help me. Assuming most players make this mistake once every other season, that would give me ~ 1-2 unexpected absences per game. Not too terrible...right? Yeah, not a big deal IF you could expect normal distribution throughout the season. The problem is, you cant. You may bet zero unexpected absences one week, and then 4 the following week. With such high variations, it makes it near impossible to "expect" the unexpected and correctly anticipate those that will be missing.

I think the only "silver bullet" to the whole problem is to ask each player individually if they will be attending the game on game day. This works to eliminate the problem, but WHO HAS TIME TO DO THAT EVERY WEEK!!!?

Anyways, if anybody has a good idea on how to overcome these sorts of problems, i'm all ears.