Back on the lake

I just came back from another trip to Lake Powell. It was another week of boating, fishing, camping, drinking, eating and sleeping - fun for all.

The biggest change in Lake Powell is its level. Before we shoved off we were told that the lake was rising 5 inches a day. Given the size of the lake this is a massive increase.
The photos above show one of our favorite campsites near Oak Canyon. The photo on the left was taken in June, 2007 and the one on the right this past trip in June, 2009. You can see how much the water has risen in the past two years. If you click on the images to see them in full size you'll see the house boats and get a better sense of scale of the rock formations in the canyon.

We had 18 people spread over 2 house boats. On the left is Skye, our youngest crew member, demonstrating the rough life of 5:00 AM fishing duty.

The fishing parties were quite successful almost every day which helped create a bit of variety in the prepared dinner menus.

At the end of the day, though, it was necessary to marshal the appropriate resources and prepare for the evening's festivities. Feeding 18 people does require a bit of work but the group was up for it with everyone taking turns with the various tasks. As you can see, it was just a week full of difficult toil and drudgery as we slogged through the chores of the day.

We all had our own roles to play and it went off almost without a hitch. There was a bit of excitement as I landed the boat one evening in 40 mph winds to be followed the next morning with water as smooth as glass.

It was a great trip, it helped everyone unwind and we enjoyed, once again, one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

Newest Family Member

This is Buddy, the newest member of our family. Buddy is a rescued foundling.

Wendy's brother, Jim, owns a tree farm near the Louisiana-Mississippi border which he visits every week or so. On one visit back in December he heard barking as he got out of his truck.

When he investigated he found this dog, about 1/2 its current size, living under the house in a hole he dug and had filled with leaves. He also found a deer carcass that had been dragged from the woods which was serving as this miscreant's food source.

In January, on a visit to Louisiana, Wendy and I met this dog and felt that we could give it a new home. He has traveled quite extensively with Wendy and me across country and back and forth from California to Arizona to Louisiana.

Contrary to the photo shown here he is actually quite well behaved. We ignored the advice of family and friends to name him "Lucky Bastard" and went with the run-of-the-mill, Buddy.

Someone who loves golf more than even I...

I'm always moved by those who overcome whatever obstacles are thrown their way to achieve their goals. I never understand the people I see on the golf course who are unhappy. I understand that some people just want to be miserable but the golf course, to me, is a place of peace and tranquility - even when I'm playing my worst. As frustrating as it is I always remember that my worst day on the golf course is better than my best day at work. I love golf to a point of obsession. I study the game and its nuances in an effort to improve my swing, my score and my overall experience.

As much as I love the game of golf I don't think I have the strength to be as dedicated as this individual. I've read about DJ before but I found this video to be quite moving and inspirational.

Remember that whatever the situation sometimes all it takes is a little perseverance. Go ahead and take 13 minutes out of your day and enjoy this video. Then go out and persevere at whatever your personal challenge may be.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Bessie Bergeron (B.B.) Hernandez

I just returned from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where I payed my final respects to my wife's grandmother, B.B. B.B. was born 103 years ago on October 3, 1904 in Erwinville, Louisiana. March 2, 2008 was her last day on earth.

The photo at right was taken when my wife presented a landscape quilt to B.B. for her 100th birthday. The quilt depicts B.B. childhood home. You can see more about the quilt at wendysquilts.com.

What I remember most about B.B. was her feistiness. She wasn't going to put up with anything from anybody, but she was also one of the sweetest persons I ever knew. She would sit for hours so as not to disturb the cat in her lap.

B.B. also had a penchant for cookies and every year we would buy her a few cases of girl scout cookies which she would stash in her closet. We tried telling her that, at 102 years of age, it was O.K. to eat cookies whenever and wherever she wanted. But, B.B. being B.B., would hide in her closet eating away as if she had some forbidden treat and didn't want to get caught.

B.B. was born in another time, when manners still mattered and gentlemen and ladies were still gentlemen and ladies. B.B. is survived by three daughters, fourteen grandchildren, twenty-one great-grandchildren and one great-great-granddaughter.

Vaya con Dios, B.B.

Golf and Cigars

I don't get it. I just don't get it. I play a lot of golf. About 15% of the people with whom I play smoke cigars. Many of my friends smoke cigars when on the golf course and I-just-don't-get-it.

Many of the people I know took up cigar smoking later in life. To me, it seems that they took it up as a means of being "cool". I always thought that if you survived into your twenties after all the "cool" things you did there was a pretty good chance you wouldn't do as many stupid things to appear "cool", thereby increasing one's odds of making it into the next decade. Oh well, I was wrong.

The other day I was on the practice range at the golf course and someone behind me was smoking a cigar. Essentially sharing his "coolness" with all of us. There I was, on a beautiful, sunny day in the mountains enjoying the crisp, cool, clean air and I was struck by the pungent smell of someone's oh-so-cool cigar. I asked about it and was told that it was their last bastion. WTF! Who ever said you get a bastion inside my bastion. Smoke in your house. Smoke in your car. Smoke when you're walking down the course. But don't light up in my face.

I was going to rant aplenty on cigars but I could never say it better than George Carlin.

More Microsoft, this time with Yahoo

After Microsoft's latest Vista failings around SP1 (it was supposed to release in 2007), I started thinking a little more about their interest in acquiring Yahoo.

Microsoft has a history of being late to new ideas, usually having to ridicule them a good bit before having a go at it themselves. The internet was one of those things and ad-based revenue with searches was another. Microsoft, rather than attack the market directly, first had to develop or acquire their own tools in order to build the infrastructure necessary to compete.

Basically, we had Google and Yahoo using open-source products, tools and methodologies and Microsoft with their proprietary stack hoping to force their products as de-facto standards. Unfortunately, it's rather difficult to create a de-facto standard with only 9% of the market. One study puts the search engine market share at:

Google - 68.6%, Yahoo - 16.7% and MSN at 8.7%

Even if Microsoft were to acquire Yahoo, their combined market share would still be significantly less than half that of Google's, though it would pretty much triple their current share.

The problem, as I see it, is that Microsoft failed using their own proprietary products and has basically surrendered and said that they can only succeed in this market by acquiring a company that built their infrastructure on open-source technologies. But wait, you say, it's not what it was built with but how it was deployed? No, no, no. The proprietary nature of Microsoft's products prevented them from establishing the very relationships that Google and Yahoo have created.

Google is the most successful and the most open. Google has built a platform upon which others can create their own solutions. http://maps.google.com has become more of a de-facto standard for web-based mapping applications than anything that Microsoft has created because anyone can interface with it and it works on any platform. It is the very attitude of closed vs. open that has enabled Google and Yahoo to be tremendously successful and Microsoft's to continually fail.

My bigger concern, though, isn't that Microsoft might actually acquire Yahoo. Instead, I'm concerned that Microsoft's mere interest in Yahoo portends that the advertising-web-search business model is done with. Microsoft's interest in Yahoo combined with their habitual lateness to new business models may be an indicator that the model is ready to change. Could this be analogous to wanting to acquire Ford's Model-T production line just as the new 1968 Corvettes are about to come out?

Microsoft's continually picking the wrong side combined with their interest in Yahoo has me on the lookout for the next big thing. For one thing, I'm sure, it won't be coming from Microsoft's "innovation" engine.

Supply, Demand and Subsidies

Imagine for a moment that you produce a product. Your product is not only popular, some would even consider it necessary. There is no practical regulation on what you charge for your product. Now, imagine that the popularity/necessity of your product convinces politicians that they should make it easier for people to buy your product through subsidies. Yet, there are still no regulations on what you charge. Would you raise your prices?

This is simple economics. A presidential candidate promises that the government will provide everyone who wants to buy your product a $4,000 subsidy every year in order to make it easier to purchase your product. Would you raise your prices?

After all, there's more money available to buy your product. In fact, there are billions of dollars in subsidies made available in taxpayer supplied grants, cheap loans and other methods to make it easier to buy your product. Oh, by the way, you don't have to pay taxes on what you bring in. Would you raise your prices?

Simple economics tell us that if there is more money available to buy a specific product then the price for that product will rise if there is no pricing regulation.

Welcome to the world of higher education in the United States. The producers (the universities) are free to set whatever price they want. As costs go higher, politicians fall all over themselves to throw more money to the consumer to make it easier to buy the product. How can anyone be surprised that the price of the product continues to rise?

Now the worst of it. Many of the private institutions have billions of dollars in cash and are earning tremendous sums of tax-free money on their cash. Yet, with all the cash the private universities have, you, the taxpayer, continue to subsidize other people so they can go to those schools. These schools continue to raise their prices because of all the subsidies that you, the taxpayer, continue to lavish upon them.

Will this change? Can this change? Perhaps it has started to change. Stanford's endowment grew last year by 22% to $17.1 billion. Stanford is now dropping tuition charges for students who come from families earning less than $100,000 per year.

Stanford deserves a round of applause for this first move.

The institution of higher-learning in this country, however, deserves continued, increasing pressure regarding their pricing as long as taxpayers subsidize their products. Personally, I think the universities should charge whatever they want for tuition. But I also think I shouldn't have to subsidize their consumers so they can afford whatever outrageous price the universities choose.