Does anybody else think Diedrich Coffee is much better than Starbucks? In addition to better coffee, Diedrich has free wi-fi. What could be better than free wireless internet access? So I decided to by some Diedrich stock (DDRX). Evidently, the company has been mismanaged, so the stock is very cheap. They just appointed a new CEO: Stephen Coffey. Can't think of a better man to turn around a struggling coffee chain.

In other news, I decided to clear the garage of some excess bicycles. Zebra bike and the old tandem are both gone.



I shall miss them both. Interestingly, either the ebay listing, or my add in the recycler triggered this email scam. It is so complicated, I am not even sure how I'm being scammed. Or maybe it's just early:

Hi,
I am a sports and leasure equipments dealer from London with clients all over U K. I have offices in most U K Cities. I have a client who's interested in your product and pleased to let you know that we are O.K with your price.

SHIPPING:
I have a shipping agent that handles all my shipments in the U.S, the shipping agent will pick up product from whatever location and have it shipped to my office.

PAYMENT:
Inrespect of payment i have a client in the USA who is owing me $5,500.00 All i need to do to make payment easier and faster is to instruct him to procure a cashier's check in your name and mail it to you. But i would want to know if i can trust you to send the remainder of the funds to my shipper via Western Union Money Transfer as soon as the check get cashed so that my shipper will make arrangement for the pick up at your location.

Should you be interested in this transaction, kindly mail me the name to purchase your check, the address you wish to receive it and your contact phone number(s), so I can forward it to my client who will purchase the check for the payment.
Thank you.
Richard Winston.

Yet another reason the British are better than us:

From the British Medical Journal's annual Christmas Cheer edition (full articles are currently free). Also, check out BMJ.com for a "Interventions for preventing and treating a hangover", and "Epidemiology and prognosis of coma in daytime television dramas".

The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australian research institute

Objectives To determine the overall rate of loss of workplace teaspoons and whether attrition and displacement are correlated with the relative value of the teaspoons or type of tearoom.

Design Longitudinal cohort study.

Setting Research institute employing about 140 people.

Subjects 70 discreetly numbered teaspoons placed in tearooms around the institute and observed weekly over five months.

Main outcome measures Incidence of teaspoon loss per 100 teaspoon years and teaspoon half life.

Results 56 (80%) of the 70 teaspoons disappeared during the study. The half life of the teaspoons was 81 days. The half life of teaspoons in communal tearooms (42 days) was significantly shorter than for those in rooms associated with particular research groups (77 days). The rate of loss was not influenced by the teaspoons' value. The incidence of teaspoon loss over the period of observation was 360.62 per 100 teaspoon years. At this rate, an estimated 250 teaspoons would need to be purchased annually to maintain a practical institute-wide population of 70 teaspoons.

Conclusions The loss of workplace teaspoons was rapid, showing that their availability, and hence office culture in general, is constantly threatened.

and

Shape of glass and amount of alcohol poured: comparative study of effect of practice and concentration

Objective To determine whether people pour different amounts into short, wide glasses than into tall, slender ones.

Design College students practised pouring alcohol into a standard glass before pouring into larger glasses; bartenders poured alcohol for four mixed drinks either with no instructions or after being told to take their time.

Setting University town and large city, United States.

Participants 198 college students and 86 bartenders.

Main outcome measures Volume of alcohol poured into short, wide and tall, slender glasses.

Results Aiming to pour a "shot" of alcohol (1.5 ounces, 44.3 ml), both students and bartenders poured more into short, wide glasses than into tall slender glasses (46.1 ml v 44.7 ml and 54.6 ml v 46.4 ml, respectively). Practice reduced the tendency to overpour, but not for short, wide glasses. Despite an average of six years of experience, bartenders poured 20.5% more into short, wide glasses than tall, slender ones; paying careful attention reduced but did not eliminate the effect.

Conclusions To avoid overpouring, use tall, narrow glasses or ones on which the alcohol level is premarked. To avoid underestimating the amount of alcohol consumed, studies using self reports of standard drinks should ask about the shape of the glass.

Welcome to the Real OC, Bitch!

I went to pick up my Dodgers Seats yesterday. I've been looking to buy a couple for several years; the Dodgers finally cooperated by replacing all their seats this off season. I am now the proud owner of M 7 and M 8. They are quite authentic, with real gum and everything.


As we were already in LA, we decided to take a tour of the Real OC. Sorry I didn't bring the camera. Here's a picture of the Redondo Beach Pier:

It's a really weird shaped pier. Rebecca's father died there, and I think Ryan punched somebody. We had breakfast at the Redondo Beach Coffee Shop, and sat at Ryan and Seth's table. Seth and Ryan just call the place "the Coffee Shop". Calling it the Redondo Beach Coffee Shop might be a little absurd, no? The Bait Shop was closed.

It begins...

Next door neighbor (cube neighbor, not regular neighbor) brings in a tiny Christmas tree and places it on the top shelf so it will be clearly visible from my cube. To counteract, I am forced to stick up a manilla folder (you know, to block my view). My side says: "Don't Look Here!!!" in 82 font, or something like that. Her side? Oogie Boogie:

Avian Flu?????

There are at least two of us who think this bird flu thing is a hoax.

http://www.mercola.com/blog/2005/oct/18/avian_flu_epidemic_scare_is_a_hoax

Land sick...

For you non-nautical types, it's kind of like being seasick...except you don't notice until you get out of the boat...and everything keeps rocking. Trying to sleep=bad. Drinking=good.

I spent the afternoon skippering a Shields in UC Irvine's annual Turkey Day Regatta (which always seems to be the Sunday after Thanksgiving). Somehow, I ended up with the slowest boat in the fleet, Mildred, which actually belongs to Harvey Mudd College. What is Harvey Mudd doing with a Shields? You ask...I can only tell you what they're not doing with a Shields: maintaining it.

Parts that broke (or we noticed were missing) during the race:

1) Backstay (cleat broken)
2) Downhaul/cunningham (missing)
3) Jib fairlead block (not attached)
4) Spinnaker pole mast attachment (missing)
5) Starboard winch (not winching very well)
6) Halyard winch (missing)

I had a good jury rigger on board and ended up finishing in 5th. Boat number 6 had some problems of their own and quit early.

Whatever happened to Lasko font? Those Microsoft bastards have decided that none of you need it. I disagree. So, after a long, but successful search, I have installed it on this here computer. In order for this to work, I need everybody else to install it, as well. So here it is, available free for download: CAC Lasko Even Weight. Extract it into the file that contains your other fonts. On my computer this was at: C:\WINNT\Fonts (I suppose this will be different for anybody not running Windows NT).
As far as I know, this file contains no viruses, but please use at your own risk.

This just in: I am famous.

Since most of you can't read the company start page (on our intranet), I took the liberty of mirroring the page right here. Sorry, the weather and some other stuff may be missing. You have no idea how long this took.

New Template and another Mud Run.

The old one had some stray html that was messing up my comments. It's called "Harbor". We'll see how this one goes.

Anyway, I got roped into another Mud Run. I am not a huge fan of mud or anything, so why do I keep doing it? Here's the after photo. (On the far left: Ed Feaver, President of Prescription Solutions; to his right: Bill Mickle, Vice President of Operations; next to me is Ed Pezalla, Vice President and Medical Director--my boss).

Nico and I spent the rest of the weekend in San Diego. We stayed at the Omni, in the Gaslamp Quarter. The hotel is attached to Petco Park, which would have been pretty cool if the Padres had been playing. We did have an impressive view (although the sun never came out) of the Harbor and Coronado Bridge. Here's the Dole Pineapple Boat. From Hawaii?

P.S. Please click my sponsor at the top. I think I get a penny, or something.

I picked up a new reader (I think that makes 5), my co-worker Daniel. He's been asking me to update my blog. I told him that a successful blog update requires many factors, but that I could only remember two: 1) material, especially material of interest...or at least inspiration, and 2) time. I really don't have any interesting material, and as usually I don't have any time. I do however have a thread of emails relating to quest for a handheld GPS that I need because Daniel makes us walk too fast. I sent out an email to the UCI Sailing Club member list, because I figured there must be a sailor with a handheld GPS. Here's an exchange I had with a member that I don't think I know. I removed last names and headers...and I guess the location of my building so no psychos will come and kill me. Otherwise no editing, really:

Me: Anybody have a handheld GPS I can borrow for a day or two? My company just moved, and I'm trying to plot a new one mile walking course (on land, not sea). Thanks!

Chris: GPS?? Why not just use your car or bike to plot a course. Or a Thomas guide; each square is 1/2 mile on a side ( I think, you'll want to check that.)

Me: You make it sound so simple, but you have no idea how strange some of my coworkers are. One of them insists we walk a 15 minute mile (twice a day). I can run a marathon, but do you have any idea how fast you have to walk to go an entire mile in 15 minutes? The company has moved to ------ (across the street from the ---- ---- building); I would prefer not to walk on the street, and all the business have these neat courtyards with fountains, etc. So I pull some satellite photos from Google maps (they even have a scale listed), and the 15 minute mile guy measures a course with a ruler, or something. I think his course ends up closer to a mile and a half, and at the end of the day, my toes are bruised and my knees are killing me. I thought about bringing in the bike speedometer, but it's currently attached to the tandem...that seems like a lot of work.

After going back and reading this email, I'm now looking like the crazy person, and perhaps my coworkers are all perfectly normal. Fortunately, I've been offered one of those Nike GPS watches. (I think they give speed/distance, without all the mapping features of a regular GPS unit; that should be sufficient). Anyway, thanks for the advice. If I worked with normal people, it would be more than adequate. (My first thought was: "Let's walk this way for 7 or 8 minutes, then turn around and walk back". I was stared at blankly).

Chris: Thank you for the humor; I suspect it was unintended, but your email got me laughing out loud. Bruised toes and killing knees -- why is this funny? Dunno, but it is.

Just because GPS says where you are, and how far you've gone doesn't make it accurate.

If you ride the tandem while your friend, I mean crazy coworker, walks, you should be able to keep up without your toes getting bruised. Won't that be a cartoon, you riding a tandem while your friend walks vigorously. People will assume you've done something to offend him, so he got off the bike, and now you're trying to apologize.

You could hire a local survey company like Psomas, to come out and layout a course for you. They could set nails in the concrete every 0.1 mile, so you can see if you're on track for your 4 mph. Actually 4 mph is a pretty fast clip; reasonably easy on a treadmill, but hard to average in the real world. I've always been surprised how slowly I go on a hike; 2.5 mph is not unusual for an overall average when hiking with others. So what profession are your coworkers anyway, that your "let's go this way, then go back" was ignored?

Me: The humor is always intended, but nobody ever gets it. At the end of my Capri 1 classes I always get a couple of comments that I'm not funny enough or that I don't tell enough jokes. I just started a new class over the weekend; this time, when they don't laugh, I've been pausing for a few seconds and then telling them that was a joke...go ahead and laugh. So far they've at least been humoring me. Maybe I need to bring a laugh track, or something. I work for Prescription Solutions (part of PacifiCare), with a bunch of pharmacists. From your email, I'm guessing you're an engineer. We're actually a lot like engineers, which explains why nobody wanted to walk for 7 and a half minutes and then turn around. At least I think that explains it. Thanks for the tandem imagery, and the Psomas suggestion (that might be a little beyond our budget. Remember, I'm too cheap to spring $70 for a handheld GPS). Back to work.

Chris: Guilty as charged. I could charge you a bunch of money laying out a multi-phased program to lay out a variety of courses of lengths appropriate to your workout needs; longer when preparing for a marathon, shorter for recovery days. Then I could sell you instrumentation to automatically track your progress at utilizing these courses, but I get to keep the instrumentation.

I've been in the public sector for 11 years, but before that I was a consultant, and plan to return to the consulting world after I'm through with my gig here. So I'm working on my consulting rap.