My HP-41CX

One of 3 HP calculators I used in college.  This HP-41CX got me through those ugly Chemistry finals when I programmed it with some interactive formulas.  I was actually telling Sam earlier today about RPN logic and its advantages.  I could have shown him in person but I needed some 4 odd-size batteries.  The HP-41C flew on seven Space Shuttle missions and were programmed to recalc reentry in the event of main navigation computer failure.  To think that any cheap game console today has more computing power than this $400 calculator (at the time) is just mindboggling. Even harder to fathom is the fact that I wore this on my belt at school for a couple years.

The 1000-Hour Proficiency Model and The Finite Number of Hours In A Day

I have this long-standing belief that anyone who spends about 1000 hours on any endeavor has a good chance of being proficient in the activity of choice.  I subscribe to this belief in learning & education, motor skills activities like sports and most certainly, art & music.  Specifically, learning an instrument from square one.  I also subscribe to the principle that it's never too late to learn a skill -- no matter how difficult the subject matter, no matter your age.  And there's also serendipity, of course, as the opportunity presents itself.

A loaner electric piano became available to me last week and after about 4 hours, I can play simple boogie tunes and a minor ballad -- thanks to the internet, of course.  Well, there's that 2-handed method as well which had been a struggle so far.  Being a leftie, I can do arpeggiated chords in one direction smoothly depending on the hand.  Which means, I will need at least an hour a day for the next year to just get my motor skills in sync with what I intend to play.  So that leaves me with about 600 hrs of learning the theory which puts me at mid-2014 for my proficiency target of a thousand hours.  Althoug, something has got to give in order for me to get this hour a day dedicated for learning the piano.  Art? Cycling?  Guitar playing? Nope. Work? Can't afford to.  Sleep? Maybe.

Board Game Geekery

I'm a believer that games should be simple and with rules that are easy for anyone to understand.  Checkers, chess, backgammon and Scrabble are examples of games that most people at any age could play without having to memorize 100 rules, literally.  The other rule of thumb I have for games is that one should be able to play a round in less that an hour.  So when Sam got Axis and Allies, I just cringed because I knew it was one of those super-complicated strategy games with dozens of rules and could take days to play.  Over the holiday break, Sam studied all the rules and for the past 3 days we've been "practice playing" just so we get the hang of it.  We've played a total of four hours (just a continuation of a single game) and movement on the board is slow but I'm beginning to appreciate the strategy behind domination in Axis and Allies.  Unfortunately, the kids go back to school tomorrow and we'll probably pick up the game later in the week.

Speaking of board games, I don't understand why my family takes such pleasure in beating yours truly.  Christmas eve Scrabble game with my mom, cousin and aunt was my 2nd time ever playing that game and lost by only 8 points in spite of me cooking the ham and entertaining while playing the letter tiles.  I swear it felt like the best Christmas present my mom ever got.  Then there's my younger kid who always celebrates like a world champion after beating me at Tangoes or backgammon.  I might as well paint a bulls-eye on my forehead, right?

Time

It's been about 10 years since I last wore a wristwatch regularly.  A month ago, I started wearing one again but the strangest thing is I recall looking at it to check the time maybe once a day -- at most.  Why? Too many other devices around me that tell me the time? Maybe, I have this internal clock that gives me a rough idea of the time.  The pragmatist in me says if I don't use it, I don't need it.

Speaking of time, the current issue of National Geographic poses the question of how long it would take mankind (using current technology) to travel to the nearest star Proxima Centauri.  It could really mess up your mind if you think at that scale.  17,000 years.  Given this, I think we're forever (in relative human timescale) confined to our solar system.  If ignorance is bliss, it would have been better if we didn't know of the theoretical limit of the speed of light.  Damn these physicists.

Geeked Out

I'm actually surprised I avoided it for so long.  I've been playing guitar, both acoustic and electric for as long as I can remember and not once did it occur to me to put together my own custom effects pedal board -- until last week.  Ever since the kids and I started playing, it was a struggle to get particular sounds like Tom Morello's guitar in Audioslave and Rage, and some surf guitar music as well.  When I found the GIG-FX Chopper last week, I knew it would be the central to getting most sounds I cared about.  However, there's also the 3 other pedals I used regularly and it became just a major pain to lug all 4 effects from room to room and having to plug in 4 separate 9-volt adapters.  A Saturday trip to Guitar Center and I'm officially all geeked out with my custom gear.  Ready to groove!

What Takes Up (My) Time

As I noticed the other books I had on the counter, I realized that these four things drive life as I know it today -- science, cycling, art and music.  The key is to not let one thing drive the others out of the picture -- it's all about balance.  Just about the only thing that will preempt any or all of these four is my kids.  But the real trick is getting both kids to appreciate all those that I do -- on their own cognizance, of course.  I don't know if they'll ever get a full understanding of art  nor whether they will take up the sciences but so far, I got them both into music and cycling.

Project Merckx

I wanted to take these photos as a baseline before I start (yet again) another restoration project.  My 1983 Eddy Merckx bike equipped with full Campagnolo Nuovo Record.  It took me a while to find one my size (53cm) and color (blue).  Besides Belgian beer and Belgian waffles, a handmade frame with the name of the cyclist nicknamed "The Cannibal" is the only other thing Belgian that I desire.  The last photo with the sticker that says "MEXICO Km. 49,431" is worth noting.  Eddy Merckx set the world hour record in 1974 at a velodrome in Mexico City and was still the record holder at the time this bike was issued.  The hour record had been broken several times since by multiple cyclists but what stood out with Merckx's record is he did it with drop handlebars, a steel frame and wire spokes.  The world of cycling at the time hadn't crossed paths with the world of aerodynamics yet.  This restoration project is more of a cleaning project.  Most of the original part are on this bike except for one minor item - a missing handlbar plug.  This is my holy grail of cycling.

Sudoku Addiction

I don't know how I find time to do these Sudoku puzzles but I've been averaging 3-4 puzzles a day since I bought this book "Wicked Sudoku".  Once I developed an algorithm for solving a puzzle, it became a matter of really just looking for specific clues.  In the past, I've used our annual flight to Hawaii for time to either write, draw or sleep but this time around, I finished a few Sudoku's in the Demanding category.  The first 100 of the puzzles in this book are Demanding and the second 100 are of the "Beware: Very Challenging" category.  So far, it's satisfying to complete these so we'll see how long I can stay focused.

Made For Geeks TV

Back when I was in college, I never would have imagined they would make a TV series like The Big Bang Theory -- about physicists and their awkward social skills.  Not only can I relate to the social ineptness and inability to read human interactions of geeks but I also get all the jokes and they are funny as hell (I do wonder if non-scientists get the jokes but they are accurate and the delivered perfectly in each scene).  All I can assume is that some real-life geeks work as consultants for the show.  Sheldon and Leonard have a combined IQ of 360 and share an apartment and of course, the cute blonde, Penny moves in just across the hall.  The rest is hysteria.  The success of BBT just makes me wonder whether geek is finally cool.  This television series is the anti-Idiocracy!

Project Hapa Strat

I got the Tom Delonge Strat in a sub-standard state but I knew it had good bones.  Love the neck, the fixed bridge and the single Seymour Duncan Invader pickup.  What I wanted was a guitar that can go from SRV-type blues to Audioslave riffs.  What I wanted was a single volume control -- not tone pots which I never use on any of my other guitars.  So I ordered some Tex-Mex single coils for the neck and middle positions to complement the Invader in the bridge position.  Then I custom ordered a pearloid pickguard from Warmoth to have the HSS cutouts but with a single volume pot hole.  Everything came together quite easily on Friday night as I soldered and routed wires.  By Saturday, my Hapa Strat was ready to plug in and play.  By Sunday, it's safe to say I can remove the protective film on the pickguard.  This surf green strat rocks!

Walking Dead

Man, am I hooked.  For the past year, both kids have been exhaustively seeking out every zombie movie out there.  JJ even got a reference book on the history of zombies from the black and white George A. Romero classic "Night of the Living Dead" to the funny "Shaun of the Dead".  But this weekend, we got the first season DVD of the AMC series "Walking Dead" and even I watched intently every episode in the first season as well as both Season 2 episodes aired tonight.  Walking Dead is different than most zombie material out there because there is somewhat of a story between the main characters, not unlike most drama out there -- except there's the backdrop of "walkers" that can emerge from anywhere at anytime. Walkers, obviously in reference to the fact that these zombies' body involuntarily move in response to human scent.  There are crawlers too and in tonight's AMC episode, one was referenced as a swimmer -- a zombie trapped in an water well.  What's really memorable about tonight's episode is that as the humans were trying to pull the zombie out of the well with a rope attacked to its upper torso, its lower body just cut in half from the fact that the tissue and bone structure cannot support its hanging weight.  I don't know if Walking Dead will ever bring to zombies what X-Files did to aliens but these first 2 seasons had been very well written and acted -- so far.  Several episodes had been adhering to the formula plot of a few of the lead actors/actresses go off into zombieland to retrieve something (guns, food, medicine, a redneck cuffed to a pipe) and in the process, the rest of the story develops -- usually something typical of a drama, the human side.  If you can get over the fact that zombies are fictional, at best, then Walking Dead is the most unusual of all dramas that television had ever produced.

Rancho Cucamonga DMV Statistics (10/28/11)

I went to pick up my personalized plates today and as soon I sat down, I decided the DMV wait is not going to fuck up my day so I collected data as I waited for my number to get called.  I wrote down the ticket number and window number as they were called out.  And I proceeded to do statistics analysis on the data I was collecting.  Before I knew it, my 1 hour and 17 minute wait was over and I got my JEDIISM plate.  I should probably send my data snapshot to the Rancho Cucamonga DMV office so they can see how they are serving the public, which employees are efficient (and which are slackers).  I understand there is variability in the type of service performed in each transaction but that is what statistical analysis is for -- to get an overall feel for how a sample set represents some general aspect of anything.  Not all the windows were open (probably blaming state budget cuts) and only 15 windows called out numbers.

Service Window	Total Customers	Avg Time Per Customer
1	9	0:09
2	2	0:19
3	7	0:11
4	6	0:11
5	6	0:13
6	5	0:15
7	5	0:17
8	11	0:06
9	6	0:08
10	--	--
11	6	0:11
12	7	0:04
13	6	0:09
14	4	0:04
15	1	One Sample
16	--	--
17	--	--
18	--	--
19	--	--
20	--	--
21	3	0:09

Total Customers = 84

Total Time Observed = 1 hr 12 min

Average Time Per Customer = 10 min

Most Customers Served = Window 8 (11 customers)

Faster Service Time = Window 14 (4 min per customer)

Least Customers Served  = Window 15 (1 customer)

Slowest Service Time = Window 2 (19 min per customer)

I think for the most part, DMV employees are hardworking.  I mean, I'd hate to be doing this for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week but just like with any other place of employment, there are slackers.  If Window 8 can handle 11 customers in the sample time, why is Window 6 only servicing less than half that at a rate of at least twice as slow.  If I were to slash more jobs, I would use these numbers to justify my cuts.

What Incentive?

I am hard-pressed to find a more inefficient agency that does not have the acronym "DMV".  A week ago, I got a notice in the mail that the personalized license plate I ordered had arrived and that I need to pick it up.  The only problem is there is not a single indicator on the notice nor on the envelope where the plates can be picked up.  Luckily, I remembered that I indicated the Rancho Cucamonga DMV when I ordered the plates online a good 10 weeks ago.  I actually took a Friday afternoon off to brave the non-appointment wait of about an hour -- which is not bad, except when I was 10 numbers away from being called, I have to leave to pick up one of my boys from school.  Which meant returning a couple hours later to wait yet again -- with a new number.  The late afternoon wait was actually shorter by a good half hour and is somewhat tolerable.  Until I had to get to talk to a DMV employee at the window.  What is the incentive for a state DMV employee to be efficient, engaging and capable?  They know the office closes at the exact time whether they serve 200 or 2000 for the time they are open, it doesn't really matter.  I did finally get D LINKIN around 4pm and was quite happy to leave and put the new plates on Elsie -- until he told me that I need stickers.  Stickers?  Yes, month-and-year-of-expiration stickers.  I needed to wait in different line for stickers.  Again, what is the incentive to come up with an efficient process?  I stood in yet another line waiting for stickers when my original DMV agent, walks up to the sticker window and asks for my paperwork.  Why on earth did he just walked over 15 steps earlier, grabbed my stickers and saved me the frustration of another line?  If there is ever a stereotype of a state employee, it's got to be a DMV clerk.  Now I know why I pay AAA membership so I could do all my DMV transactions in the more efficient, privately-owned Auto Club of Southern California. Needless to say, I like the new plates but I wish there was a simpler way to get it.

Relics Of An Analog World

This is a section of the radio room inside the aircraft carrier museum USS Midway in San Diego.  I've never been inside this floating airport until this week when the kids and I visited during spring break.  Although all the knobs in this panel look overwhelming, it's really very obsolete and analog.  Digital technology has afforded the modern sailor simpler GUI-based control in switching communication calls between pilots, control tower, officers and other personnel.  I would not be surprised if all the radio equipment in this room at the Midway is compressed to a single rack in the more modern Nimitz-class USS Abraham Lincoln.  Not only is digital communications systems smaller in scale but also has higher capacity (handle more phone calls) and more secure. But hey, what would a museum exhibit be without knobs to turn and switches to flip?

The Death Star (Mother-Of-All-Legos)

It was a brief phone conversation.  I called the Lego Store in Glendale Monday afternoon to inquire about the Death Star and said they expect some coming in later in the week.  Call back Thursday or so, the guy said on the phone.  Tuesday, I just had this nagging feeling that I should call again -- just in case. After all, the Lego Store in Ontario said they don't expect any more any time soon.  Are these Death Stars that popular?  So I called around 11am today just to see if a shipment of Death Stars came in.  "We have one" she said.  Trying to decide if I should go now or after work was a really easy choice -- go now, fast --- and actually was a wise one.  When I got there, the salesperson said I am getting the last one, they've already sold four this morning.  Am I underestimating the number of geeks out there who can afford these $400 Lego sets?  I'm getting this one for my son who just turned 11 last week and got enough Christmas and birthday money to get Darth Vader's mother-of-all-Lego-sets.  This one will take a while to build.  The instructions alone is a thick 262 pages (below) and the set contains over 3800 pieces.

Totally Geeked Out!

I've been waiting for 2010 to end so I can finally get some trend data on all my digital photos. Totally geeked out. There is the "out-of-family" data point in 2009 where there is a definite dip in the total pics taken and this can be explained with the move from Pasadena to Rancho Cucamonga taking up most of my free time.