Airport Book

Read "A Week at the Airport" by Alain De Botton, a wonderful little book about an airport terminal.

Weekend Activities

* Survived the hail
* Chased squirrels at Cardiff with Sophie
* Jaya's piano performance test

Weekend Activites

* Built trebuchet with Bengt. We had a great time building the kit.
* Walk with Sophie in downtown.

* 5K run.
* Jo was sick :(

Muammar Qaddafi, Fashion Icon

The recent activity in Libya reminded me on this Vanity Fair article.

3 Technical Books

Picked up a trio of technical books to help me with some new projects -

• Pragmatic Guide to JavaScript by Christophe Porteneuve - a good guide/reference to the latest js stuff


• Web Design for Developers by Brian P. Hogan - a great guide for developing web pages, targeted for the non-designer


• Professional Android 2 Application Development by Reto Meier - a good guide/reference for Android apps

Chasing Cezanne

Chasing Cezanne is another Peter Mayle novel. It was a good read until the end which was terrible. The ending was rushed and hardly followed the rest of the book. I love Peter Mayle's books, but this one needs a version 2.0.

Wooden Book

A recently finished a book my wife gave me, "A Game Plan For Life: The Power of Mentoring" by John Wooden and Don Yaeger. I enjoyed the mentoring stories Coach Wooden had, but especially like the second half of the book which had chapters written by people mentored by Wooden. This list included Lewis Alcindor (as Coach called him) and Bill Walton. Highly recommended for those considering mentoring or being mentored.

Union Spelling Dispute

Some local union came by the office and had a labordispute.

Funny thing is, directly out of view, on the building, is a huge NG logo with the correct spelling. Work union, spell worse.

Steve Blank

Heard Steve Blank talk at SD Tech Founders meetup.

Weekend Activites

* Replaced broken water heater. The old one was leaking and finally croaked when a short cause a small conflagration.
* Got sick.

The Pacific Book

After watching the mini-series (most episodes, at least) I read the companion book to "The Pacific". I prefer the book. The show is great, with good acting and chilling action scenes. But the scope is narrow: marine enlisted infantry. The book covers aviators, officers, et. al. Not meant to be a definitive narrative (which it isn't) it gives a great feel for the war and the different emotions swirling around during that period.

Consolidated Plant

The UT had a nice article on the Consolidated/Convair/General Dynamics plant I visit quite often.

Abacus

Bengt passed his 9 kyu level abacus exam! The next level has more complicated multiplication and starts division.

Traffic Jam

Here is a snap of a local freeway cam during the storms a few weeks ago.


I would hate to be in traffic like that.

Howard Lindzon

Howard Lindzon gave a great (and funny) talk at SD Tech Founders meetup.

Weekend Activities

* Dog hikes at Cardiff and San Elijo Lagoon.

Weekend Activities

* Visited the zoo to see the Elephant Odyssey exhibit which was very nice. I liked the comparison of prehistoric animals to present day ones.
* Spent time at the beach to take advantage of the nice weather.

Books

More Books:

• Geek Dad by Ken Denmead - has some interesting projects but not as good as Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction.


• Throwing the Elephant: The Art of Managing Up by Stanley Bing - a goofy book about managing executives; only common sense advice; more satire than real advice.


• Victory and Deceit: Dirty Tricks at War by James F. Dunnigan and Albert A. Nofi - An ok book on deception tactics over the years. The most interesting items were the late 20th century deceptions like Bosnia and the Gulf War.


• Iwo Jima: Portrait of a Battle by Eric Hammel - A truly outstanding book. The pictures should be mandatory viewing. The narrative is well written but a bit tough on the brass.

X-Com

Thanks to Three Moves Ahead #92 and Steam, I am playing X-Com again. Time-waster supreme.

IBD Wonk

I started a new blog about investing the CANSLIM way, IBD Wonk.