blogger v. wordpress (and typepad)

I've tried about three blog sites, and I haven't used them extensively, but I'll tell you what I know.

• blogger.com
  • hosts this site (and http://anything.blogspot.com)
  • it's free
  • statistics are minimal, but you can add free counters/trackers from http://clustrmaps.com and http://www.onestatfree.com and their ilk
  • you can preview your formatting while disconnected because of humongus javascript downloaded into your browser. This is the best thing about blogger in my opinion.
• wordpress.com
  • hosts http://waywords.wordpress.com
  • it's free
  • statistics and lots of other cool widgets are built-in; of course you can also add http://clustrmaps.com etc. if you like
  • BUT: preview inevitably results in a save to the mothership; your preview comes from there. So no offline previewing. If you're always connected this isn't an issue, but I'm often out of wifi's reach so this is a bummer.
• typepad
  • hosts http://californiaroll.blogs.com (blog of the lovely Carol) and http://anything.blogs.com
  • it costs like $5-$6 a month maybe?
  • At times I have felt that the site had fewer outages than blogger.com, but that was just a feeling. blogger.com has been pretty good lately. I haven't been using wordpress.com very long but I haven't encountered any wordpress.com outages. No idea whether this impression has any basis in reality.
  • I haven't tried doing anything offline with typepad.

Here's a table to summarize what I know (which isn't much!) about these sites:

site	price	bells&whistles	edit/preview offline?
blogger.com	free	spartan	YES!
typepad.com	$5-$6/month	?	?
wordpress.com	free	extensive	No

Just how spiritual do you think I am?

Sometimes I wonder if people who read this blog think I'm more spiritual than I actually am. Or maybe, if you haven't been reading carefully, you think I've got all the answers.

I hate to disappoint you ("My fans are my life," as my friend Barry says) but, ah, no.

I may not struggle with exactly the same issues you do, but there's a lot of overlap. Do you worry too much about what other people think? I do sometimes.

Do you sometimes fail to do what you know you should? Me too.

Are your priorities skewed? Mine sometimes are; I'm a little too interested in food and sex and not quite interested enough in diet and exercise—a little too interested in technology and new ideas, and not always whole-hearted in my pursuit of spiritual transformation.

And so when our pastor talked a few days ago about being a whole-hearted follower of Jesus rather than just admiring him, I had to think.

Yancey writes that he was supposed to sign a statement of faith saying he believed this and that "without mental reservation." He commented that he barely can get out of bed without mental reservation.

By the end of the sermon, I decided that both Yancey and I are a bit too literal-minded.

Here's the thing: I read passages like Colossians 1:28-29, which talks about laboring "with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me." I don't labor in anything with all of his energy, or mine either for that matter. And I remember times I have failed in the past -- not to do the "I do not deserve to live" thing, but just to have a sober view of myself -- it is God, not I, who got me here.

You too, I daresay. The point, though, is that in case there's anyone left out there who thinks me more spiritual than I actually am, please think again. And by the way, there's no need to worry about how spiritual someone else is.

And in case you're afraid you're not spiritual enough, then I say to you: never mind all that; just follow Jesus.

Sunday, Butano

So the lovely Carol had the idea to go to Butano State Park this afternoon -- go for a hike or something and enjoy a simple picnic dinner. So off we went.

We drove up Woodside Road (La Honda Road) and stopped at the convenience store where Skyline meets it. I have stopped there several times while on bike rides with the elder teen, and Carol wanted to see it.

We picked up some snacks -- a Haagen-Dazs bar (pomegranate and dark chocolate), some madelines, and a "Sesame snack."

This sesame snack is good stuff. It's Greek! Now I think a lot of us Americans don't know much Greek besides "spanakopita" and "dolmas" -- so here's another delicious thing to remember: Μακεδονικο Παστελι. What makes this stuff worth remembering is that it is not gooey, dental-health-destroying, 90%-honey-and-corn-syrup stuff. This is 2/3 sesame seeds and it is crisp and delicious. Your dentist probably reviles this stuff a lot less than he would that sticky gooey honey junk.

But I was going to tell you about Butano. We continued on highway 84, descending into fog near San Gregorio. The entire shoreline seemed shrouded in fog, so when we saw a sign saying Butano was to the left (this was Pescadero Road), we took the turn back into the sunshine.

After consulting the map a couple of times, we arrived. There is a small picnic area, and many trails. We saw a parking spot by a small creek to our left, and a sign announcing "Mill Ox Trail." We took it along the creek, then up a pretty steep hill to a junction with the "Jackson Flats(?) Trail". There were ferns and coastal redwoods. It was quite cool, though the weather report said to expect a high of 81°F today. We heard no cars -- only birds, and the squeaking of Carol's shoes.

It was altogether lovely.

There are other trails -- I remember taking the Año Nuevo trail some years back, and it was quite steep, hot, and dusty. I guess we were lucky today.

I would tell you more, but the lovely Carol reminds me that some readers are under 21, and she doesn't want me to embarrass her. So I will be discreet.

We enjoyed our picnic, and I drove home.

Sorry; that's all I'm going to say about it.

VTA flight crew

If you don't live or work in Santa Clara County, you might not be familiar with VTA, the Valley Transportation Authority. This morning, I sat down in one of their vehicles, and was typing away on my laptop when the operator came on board. He looked something like my picture of a southern sheriff: very short hair, moustache/beard, sunglasses. "Lanky" is not the word for this man's build.

As he stepped into the cockpit/cab, he was saying something to one of the passengers about laptops interfering with his GPS. His body language and smile were most un-sheriff-like.

The passenger was saying something about needing GPS if the train should happen to leave the rails.

I turned my head to face them. "All electronic devices must be turned off until we reach cruising altitude?"

He flashed me a big grin. "Exactly."

"And no cell phones at any time?"

"Ow! That lets me out!" (He had been talking on his cell as he came aboard.) We all laughed, and he closed the cockpit door to begin his pre-flight checklist.

Now does that beat fighting traffic on the Bayshore parking-lot? (And as I write this, our VTA vehicle is passing under the Ellis St. overpass; I see cars moving maybe 15-20 mph on the Bayshore.)

A mentoring experience

About a year ago, I was introduced by email to a young fellow I'll call Pankaj, and we had lunch together for the first time yesterday. We had a great time. Here's how it happened.

I had signed up with MentorNet as an available mentor for a student or someone starting out in my field. This is a high-tech and focused version of what we used to call "penpals." The idea is that prospective mentors and mentees sign up and give their preferences: want a male or female counterpart^*, how close a match to their current field of work/study they want, etc. Then, like a dating service or something, they match you up and encourage you to email each other regularly (weekly or biweekly).

^*"counterpart" isn't quite right; neither is "partner", but the idea is "your mentor or protégé." (the mentornet folk use "protégé.") The Japanese word 「相手」 is what I want, but I'm not sure what the right English word is.

So I was introduced to "Pankaj" and we exchanged emails from time to time.

But MentorNet don't just leave you; they send reminders, suggested discussion topics, etc. Sometimes I used the MentorNet reminders as a starting point for discussions. Once, when I had sent emails a few days or weeks apart without getting a reply, the MentorNet reminder said that students often felt overwhelmed with their studies, with their part-time jobs if they had any, etc., so don't be discouraged if they don't always write back right away, and don't give up on them. That one was well-timed.

Sometimes Pankaj would ask me about something and I would send him a pointer to one of my blog posts. Occasionally I'd write a new blog post based on something he asked. But most of the time I tried to give him sage advice (yeah right) about careers and life. And somewhat inspired by 1 Thessalonians 2:8, I talked about life outside of "business" -- family, vacations, church, etc. And when he wrote about his travel (back to his home country), his family, etc., I responded as I'd want someone to respond to my daughter living on the other side of the continent. And I tried to imagine how his parents must feel with their son half-way around the world.

As it turns out, I didn't really have much sage advice for him. He asked me how to select a topic for a research paper, and I didn't know. He asked how to avoid getting "pigeonholed," and I didn't know that either. But I told him what I did know, and how I would think about these things.

So at the end of our designated 8-month period, when the MentorNet folks asked me how I felt about the experience, I wasn't sure. Sometimes my emails would go unanswered, sometimes I had no clue how to answer his questions, and overall I wasn't sure how useful I was to him.

Then Pankaj asked to get together in person, which I immediately agreed to.

So yesterday it happened. He came to the NetApp office and we had lunch on the patio. At one point, he paused to thank me for being involved with him, being his mentor. I mean he was effusive! He said my emails were always so encouraging (and I'm thinking, What did I say? ), that I kept emailing him even when he didn't reply for a while (I never gave up on him), etc. And, he said, he was especially happy that I didn't email him only about classes and careers, but also told him about my family, and that I responded from my heart when he wrote to me about his.

Wow, I thought, those things never occurred to me as being unusual.

What really made me feel excited was his comment that because of his interactions with me, he was now volunteering to teach a computer class -- at a community center or something. "I felt like I was busy," he said, "but I'm sure you're a lot busier than I am. And yet you took time to encourage me and give me your advice..." And so he felt that he could take time to give something to others. "I don't have the experience to be a mentor to somebody," he said, "but I have skills with computers..." and so he gives back to the community. How cool is that?

I told him that was a great thing to do, and a great habit to get into. It reminded me of the habit of giving, so I hijacked the conversation briefly to tell him about the church we attend, where there are a lot of rich people. I mean, our household income is below average there! And on the subject of giving money, this is also an area where people need to get in the habit early. They don't necessarily have to do all their giving to the church, I said, but they should give to disaster relief, helping the poor, development, to something anyway. And if they can't give $3,000 on a $30,000 income, well, it's harder to give $20,000 on a $200,000 income because it's so much more money (or whatever their target giving % is). But I finished that digression by telling him how glad I was that he was in the habit of giving his time.

During our conversation, it came out that he'd agreed in the spring to take a certain summer internship, even though that company doesn't hire its interns as permanent employees. After committing to that internship, he got internship offers at other companies--companies that might have converted his internship into an offer of permanent employment. He turned them down because he'd already given his word to the first company, even though he really wants to find "permanent" or regular employment here.

I applauded him for keeping his word, because so many people these days don't.

We talked about what it takes to find a position with a good company, and I told him that a lot of it is being in the right place at the right time and knowing the right people. I mentioned someone in our office who came in as an intern and is now on track to be a regular employee once he graduates. This ex-intern got in basically because his resume was in the pool and happened to fit what we wanted in an intern; he showed that he could do what we expect a new college hire to do. I also summarized part of the story of how I got hired at NetApp.

Of course, I said, it's important to do what we can -- study hard, search diligently, live wisely -- but those things improve our chances; they don't guarantee success. You can graduate at the top of your class, get a great offer from a terrific outfit, and be hit by a truck on your way to work.

He asked about my kids, and I told him how they are enjoying their current adventures. He said I was a successful parent, and I said a lot of that is out of our control too. We read bedtime stories to our kids when they were younger, we read the Bible to them when they got older, of course we prayed for our kids... but a lot of people do those things and have big troubles. So, as one of our teachers at church told us, we cannot raise Christian children; we can only be Christian parents, I told him. (I also translated this for him into "raise moral children... be moral parents.")

In fact, I told him, everything that really matters in life -- everything -- is out of our control. We can study and work and pray, but we can't make someone give us a job offer. We can read to our kids, pray for them, go to all their games, help them with their homework, etc., but we can't make them turn out the way we'd like.

We walked around the building a bit, I showed him some of our products, and let him have a look at my office -- he saw some family photos and some of the kids' artwork. We also talked about the kind of work we're doing at NetApp; there are lots of significant problems to address that lie outside of the filesystem itself.

I certainly plan to stay in touch with "Pankaj" in the future, but probably not as frequently. And I am going to point my browser at mentornet right now and sign up for another "protégé" for the coming academic year.

Now I remember

One or two nights before the elder teen left for college, the four of us spent some time answering questions from The Complete Book of Questions. Somebody chose "when was the last time you cried?" and I didn't remember any since our dog died.

This occasioned some shock -- it's been a year.

Well, a day or two later I remembered this incident from when the younger teen was away.

Good thing for me she's been back for several months, and we have about a year before she leaves us.

Marriott and porn, part deux

The Marriott P.R. folk replied to my earlier letter by saying, basically, sorry you don't feel comfortable with that, and you can block that stuff if you like and still watch G-rated movies. Here is what I wrote back, with the PR person's direct quotes elided:

August 23, 2008

Dear S_____ H_____,

Thank you for your prompt reply. I apologize for the delay in following up with you; it is sometimes annoying to have a day job :)

>> Paraphrase of Marriott PR reply:
>> sorry you don't feel comfortable with that, but you can
>> block it and still watch G-rated movies. 

Indeed. Perhaps I have been unclear. Here is my concern, which I fondly hope you can relay up the chain-of-command there:

That the Marriott Corp., despite its family-friendly image, encourages and enthusiastically promotes so-called "adult" entertainment at its properties.

I appreciate that this promotion is done in a way that will not corrupt young children (there's progress since the '80s).

What is offensive is the subtext of the announcement:

We have smut available! And if you're concerned that your wife or boss will see what you've been watching, not to worry! Titles will not appear on your bill!

I'm not talking about censorship (until #4 below), but here's how you guys could back off on the enthusiastic promotion of porn -- roughly in order of difficulty (easier to harder)....

1. Don't mention "adult" in the list of films available.
   Why even mention "adult" as in "Drama, suspense, adult -- it's all here!" Why not instead "Drama, comedy, action -- it's all here!"
   
   I suggest this because if they're not thinking "I wanna see some skin" then you don't have to tell them you've got it. This will tend to reduce smut-viewing on your properties without unduly cutting into profits.
   
   
2. Don't mention on the TV screen "Titles will not appear on your bill"
   I suggest this because it'll put a little damper on weak-willed men who might otherwise succomb to the false promise of skin-flicks.
   
   
3. Actually print the titles on the bill
   In step#2 you don't tell 'em; this step is harder because some porn-viewers will become irate. They'll only do it once, though.
   
   
4. Don't offer skin flicks -- i.e., nothing X-rated at all
   Your shareholders might complain, but taking the moral high ground should not, I hope, be an alien concept to J. Willard et al.
   
   Please don't say "Marriott never takes the moral high ground; we always prefer profits to prophets" :(

Where do I come off making these absurd suggestions and wasting your time?

Here is a frightening poem written in a mainstream (not religious!) magazine:

http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/poetry/antholog/hall/husband.htm

Things like this happen in our society every day.

Now the link between broken homes and misery suffered by abandoned children and spouses is incontrovertible. Pornography ("adult" entertainment, smut, whatever) is one of many factors contributing to the destruction of American families.

And any number of feminists will tell you that pornography degrades women. Do you suppose a degraded view of women's dignity contributes to domestic violence against women?

I would like to think that the Marriott Corp. is not accelerating this destruction and decay.

I hope that you can raise this concern up the chain and that the Marriott Corporation will help stem the decay of our society.

Earnestly,

---

Now, in case anybody's wondering why I'm picking on Marriott in particular, well, it's because we happened to stay there. I'm not some kind of investigative reporter, trying to eliminate smut and corruption; that's not my major mission in life. But when I stay at a hotel chain that tries to promote a family-friendly image and they, well, peddle porn enthusiastically, then....