Why didn’t anyone tell me…

Holes, by Louis Sachar

Kids book, too simple, too predictable. However, it remained fun and kept my interest. Yeah, read into that all you want, but it made for a fun quick read. I can see why it became popular.

A Scanner Darkly, by Philip K. Dick

This one annoyed me. No, I haven’t seen the film. But the whole thing probably makes more sense to stoners. There was the interesting “cop spying on himself” thing that could have been better. Then the whole “you were double double double crossed” thing weaved too deep and too late to make sense. I hope the film made it easier to follow, by the end I wanted it to just stop.

Coraline, by Neil Gaiman

Now, if you’ve read any Neil Gaiman, you’ll realize, the guy is about 20 degrees off of level. This is all sorts of awesome. Let me tell you why.

If you read some of my previous posts, you’ll know that I’ve read enough to see some annoying patterns in books, or at least I complain about them a bit. The thing is, every time you pick up something by Gaiman, you never, ever, know what’s coming. How he’s able to keep surprising me I don’t know. Even the books by him that I don’t like enough to read again are awesome. Like I won’t bother with American Gods again, but I loved it in its way. Neverwhere I’ll be back to again soon.

Having said that, I can see how someone might mistake this for a children’s story, especially since someone made a rather gorgeous movie out of it. But make no mistake, I see this as a dark moral movie, not something I would show children. The movie, again, was beautiful visually. I liked the reworking of the story they did for the screen. In now way would I let anyone under 16 watch it though. Okay, I could see the book for a 14 year old, but the subtle mastery of it is wasted on anyone younger.

Anyway, I loved the original book after having seen the film first, which is an accomplishment that’s hard to repeat.

“Fire”, which is in the same world as Graceling, kinda.

It might be that I’m just too much of a guy for this book. I expected something far different than what I found while reading. I never quite reached the point of suspended disbelief here. The heroine is too perfect, the stupid love triangle thing appears AGAIN, etc. etc. etc. I wanted something different and didn’t get it. Maybe that’s why I was so glad it finally ended so I could start Desperately Dreaming Dexter.

I don’t know. Graceling, you just pushed on, eventually going along for the ride until things got fun. In this one, it never gets fun.

Absurdistan. I don’t remember why I picked it up, but the rambling pointless nature of it caused me to put it down. Sure, there were funny quips, but not enough to hold my attention.

The Hunger Games series.

Holy.

Cow.

I hope this lady keeps writing. At the end of the first book, I was entranced. At the end of the third, I cried. This is some seriously good writing. I’m going back to these again sometime soon.

Gee Dave, why have you not been posting so often?

Well, I’ve been changing jobs. The specifics of that are another post, but mainly right now I’m fussing about with commute options now that my drive is not only longer, but goes down one of the central traffic corridors of the bay area: 101 Northbound to Redwood City. My drive to VMware was relatively tame, taking 85 and 280, which lands you nearly at the door of the office. My drive to Nominum is quite simply awful at the moment. Average drive times for the additional what, 12 miles, is something like 45 minutes. The difference between them isn’t the issue – the issue is which roads I now have to drive. The puzzle looks so much like one of those word games you get in Math class it’s not funny. But why not, here we go.

So here are the rules:

• Kids must to be at school no earlier than 8:15 and no later than 8:30.
• Kids sometimes get sick in the middle of the day, requiring you to go pick them up. Babysitters/neighbors might be able to help with this.
• It takes 21 minutes without traffic to get to the nearest Caltrain station. Currently the last train leaves at 9:33, and after January the last train is at 8:33. (This morning I dropped off the kids, hit a lot of green lights, got there, and watched the 8:33 train pull away.)
• Even if I take the 9:33 train, I won’t get to work until nearly 11.
• It takes 45 minutes with traffic to get to the next nearest station. No hope.
• The light rail connects to the nearest Caltrain station, runs every 15 minutes, but still won’t get me to the early train.
• Motorcycles are allowed in the HOV lane, assuming you accept the risk of becoming Toyota Driver Puree. They are also allowed to ‘lane split’ by law in heavy traffic, making it possible to take even the shortest path and make good time. The ones I might want generally get 60+ mpg, I don’t want a race bike.
• Tesla Roadsters and Sedans (shipping 2012!) are allowed in the HOV lane, along with some of those little annoying cars that still have puny useless gas engines.
• Driving solo gas car, no HOV, etc. takes about 1:00 to 1:20 on the shortest path. About 16mpg in 101 traffic, about 31 miles.
• Driving solo gas car, taking ‘the middle path’, takes about fourty-five minutes to one hour: half open highway, half getting through the city to get there. About 22 mpg, but 5 more miles.
• Driving solo gas car through the mountains while embarrassing an old man in a Miata takes about 1:30, adds 15 miles to the commute, but makes me smile more. About 24 mpg, 15 more miles.
• My car is already at 151 kilomiles and one day will need replacing. The longer I can wait, the better the replacement is, but it is technically possible to replace the car at any time.
• I want to reach work sooner than 10:15 AM.
• Caltrain operates a shuttle from the northern station to the campus I now work at. They meet the 8:33 train, but not the 9:33.
• There are a couple express Caltrain runs from the work end to the home end, taking only 45 minutes on the train.

So here are the options I’ve considered in no particular order.

• Always take the middle route to save sanity in exchange for more miles, less car wear, and much less frustration.
• Work from home 3 days a week as soon as possible, driving/training in only when I have to be physically present for meetings. All sorts of advantages doing this, a separate discussion.
• Drop kids off too early, sprint for Caltrain and get the 8:33, take the shuttle, and return same path.

There are also ‘savings’ options to try to make the drive cheaper.

• Pick up a more efficient car sooner (335d? 528i? Tesla Model S?) I still can’t believe the new 528i gets 32mpg. Astonishing.
• Efficient motorcycle.
• Carpool/vanpool if possible.
• Drive my car until it can’t realistically be repaired any more before replacing.

Now let me back up and point out – this is much too hard. The “Get to Work at 8 AM” folks have lots of options. Why don’t parents? The shuttles meet up with all the early trains, the trains run far more often and closer to home here in the South Bay, there are multiple express options to choose from. There are even a couple express buses that go directly from the south bay to the peninsula. But it becomes obvious that you’re just doomed if you have kids to drop off. It’s just not going to happen.

How did this go so wrong? With all these brilliant Silicon Valley minds, can’t someone come up with a way to get more people where they actually need to go without having to drive themselves?

I was just walking back from the break room at work and overheard someone abusing the adage “need for speed”. This got me thinking about my reaction to this. I want to go back to the track, although I’ve only been once. I feel the proverbial ‘need for speed.’ Bloody hell, that means I’m insane. Or does it?

The most obvious answer is that I feel the need for some sort of catharsis. In the same way that sometimes people like riding roller coasters. The speed and physical sensation is fun – it invokes (imagine something deeply chemistry or biology sounding here). Juices flow. I smile. This is good.

But here’s the weird bit. I can get a similar emotional reaction from a good session with Gran Turismo or rFactor, minus the physical reaction of having been thrown around corners and hopefully not crashed a 10-to-100 thousand dollar car weighing 1 to 3 tons and damaging this meaty thing my mommy gave me. The thrill is real enough, the physical reaction is of course different.

There is something to be said for my weekly trip up the narrow twisting roads of the Santa Cruz mountains as a detour on my way to work. I get to feel a little of the inertia of a real car in tight corners, the roar of a real engine, the smells and sensations and sounds of a real car going beyond it’s minimal tasks of coasting along a straight highway at the speed limit or sitting quietly at a stoplight. But what about those menial tasks invokes the physical reaction of me wanting to stomp the gas, screech away from the lights and take corners at 45 mph to offset the tedium? Why do I suddenly need this sensation?

Maybe because it’s just AWESOME.

Curse you Dexter. Netflix can’t keep up with our two-episodes-a-night viewing habit.
Just finished season 2, and we were glad to see ‘her’ go. I’ve even heard it said that the newer seasons are even more fun. Somehow I think this is Crazy Talk.
I’ve always known I have this root-for-Batman side in me, and Dexter is just like crack candy for someone like me. I guess this means the end of my political career.
Who needs it. I have at least two more seasons to get through.

We have a quite good Roland digital piano. Or maybe had is a better description. The piano remains, but the sound does not. We got it from Craigslist a while back (measured in years), and it behaved nicely. Last fall (I think) it just stopped turning on. We did manage to find a local shop that was willing to do the repair, found the parts, and put it back together. But here we are some months later and it’s gone busted in a new way – power but no go. Some days I miss wood, leather, cast iron, and hard white and black plastic.
Those that know me will know that I don’t always take this view. Frequently I’m the champion of the newest API, the latest way to take a mountain of paper and turn it into an indexed hard drive of text-tagged PDF files, blah blah blah, but sometimes, stuff just doesn’t work.
In my mind, I have the same opinion of televisions. I know the new flat panels are (were?) more power efficient, lighter, easier to transport, etc., but my dad’s CRT at age maybe 20 is still functional out there somewhere. Anyone here think the backlights, colors, etc. on their TV are going to last that long? I just don’t believe it yet.
Some days I’m glad that my shoestrings are still made of silk and that my shoes are still made of leather. Maybe not everything needs changing.
Welll, off to load a 250 lb. piano into the back of my car. Which just rolled 150,000 miles today, by the way.