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Welcome to Christmas!

I love it when I'm right. Or in this case, I'm pretty much smug knowing that I was right and miserable that I know I'm going to be tortured with non-stop Christmas advertising for 55 days.

I submit to you the proof: Star 102 FM in Kansas City. Now an all Christmas all the time format! You can even stream it now! Merry Christmas!

The Christmas Conspiracy

Happy Halloween! Enjoy it while you can, because it's already gone. And it won't be back either.

My fiancée and I have been commiserating on the sad state of Halloween at our places of work. She, an elementary school teacher, has been told to not to wear any Halloween related clothing or costumes and to prepare a lesson plan to celebrate "Multicultural Day." I don't know about you, but I just can't contain my excitement at the thought of celebrating "Multicultural Day." As my she points out, "Why celebrate our own traditions when we can celebrate everyone else's?"

As a corporate drone, I used to enjoy the annual costume contest sponsored by the company, whereas this year it is noticeably absent. There is a total of one person in costume within eyesight, and he went through the painstaking process of putting on a funny hat. He's a rebel.

I'm pretty sure there is an insidious plan afoot. Did you notice the Christmas lights going up prior to Thanksgiving last year? The marketing people for Christmas have clearly decided that now that they've blown past Thanksgiving, it's time to attack the next holiday in line: Halloween. In just a few short years, July 4th red, white and blue will be replaced with green and red, with flaming Christmas trees being launched skyward. You read it here first.

I used to think the neighbors were Whiskey Tango for leaving their lights up all year; now I know that they were just ahead of their time.

Wish You Were Here

Taste

I had the good fortune to attend the Taste event at Disney's California Adventure on Saturday evening. The event was billed as a food and wine tasting evening, hosted in Studio 17 where the former Who Wants to be a Millionaire--Play It attraction was housed. The only requirements to attend was a Disneyland Annual Pass and a tribute to be paid to The Mouse.

I really didn't know what to expect going in to this event. Would Disney be ultra careful about how much wine they would serve? Would they have oversold the event so there would be shortage of food? Or long waits?

The short answers: more wine than you know what to do with; it was crowded, but not overly; there were short waits toward the beginning of the evening and no wait thirty minutes after we arrived; I never saw any table running low of any dish.

The most important part: Vin! We were given our own wine glasses upon entry, that we later were allowed to keep as a souvenir (and they even gave us a little bag to carry our wine glasses in so we didn't have to look like complete lushes roaming the theme park afterwards). There were nine wineries represented, each pouring three different wines. For the math challenged, that's 27 different wines that you could choose from, and trust me, I did my best to do just that. The wineries were:

Miner Family Vineyards (the rose was very good)
Silverado Vineyards
Baileyana Winery
Flora Springs Winery
Levendi Estates Winery
Buena Vista Winery (very good Chardonnay)
Mirassou Winery (great dessert wine made from Chardonnay)
XYZin
Rosenthal Malibu Estate
Karl Strauss Brewing Co. (for the non-wino's)

There were two surprises for the evening: Music and Chefs.

The musical offering was fantastic. My expectation, and I think even Disney's expectation up until the last minute was to park a live jazz band in the corner of a room. Instead, we were treated to an energetic performance from Barrage. The band is essentially several violin players backed up by a bassist, guitarist and drummer.

I don't know how else to describe them other than to say, go look at their website and watch some of the material they have to offer. What captivated us the most is the personality that each of the performers brought to the stage. There wasn't a lot of singing involved in each song. You might think that a performance group like this might not be all that interesting to see in person, but that's where this group excels.

The second surprise was the Chefs. The shock came as I went to retrieve the first dish of the evening, Portobello Mushroom Cappuccino Bisque from the Napa Rose. There were a few people in front of me to get their dish, and as I waited, I watched the chef behind the table preparing each cup that the dish was to be served in. When I reached the front of the line, the chef behind the table picked up a cup, and handed it to a chef in front of the table who put the finishing touches on the dish and handed it to me. It wasn't until then that I actually looked down and saw his name embroidered on his white jacket: Executive Chef Andrew Sutton.

One thing about me, I could really care less about celebrity. But I think I felt almost instantly what other people feel about meeting one of their favorite celebrities. Struggling for words, I think I got out "I love your restaurant and I've converted as many people that I can that there is fantastic food and wine at Disneyland daily!" He probably hears these types of things over and over, but his appreciation of my compliment seemed truly genuine. When I grow up, I want to be just like him. ;)

I scurried away with my treat with the new found knowledge, that holy crap: all the Chefs are here! All of them! Wow!

It was great interacting with all of the Chefs, or as many as I could before I just was too full and couldn't eat another bite. I even had to forgo dessert (which I am told was a *big* mistake) because I just had to try every dish, and didn't actually make it to every one of them. Here was the menu, and a brief comment if I tried it:

The Vineyard Room--Braised Pork Belly (like buttah)
Blue Bayou--Blackened Atlantic Salmon
House of Blues--Delta Red Beans and Rice
Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen--Louisiana Shrimp Remoulade (this was delicious, with just the right amount of spice)
Yamabuki--Sushi Trio
Club 33--Duck Confit Profiterole (my favorite dish of the evening)
Naples Ristorante--Panzanella Salad (yummmm, fresh motzerella)
Napa Rose--Portobello Mushroom Cappuccino Bisque (I really enjoyed this very creative dish)
Café Orleans--Cajun Spiced Shrimp (another tasty shrimp dish, with just the right amount of spice)
Chef Jamie Gwen--Meatball Slider on Mini-Brioche (this was good, if a bit dry, the meat was delicious. Chef Jamie is the on air radio host on various AM stations on the weekend)
Catal--Grilled Chorizo Skewers with Saffron Rouille (very light, but tons of flavor, just a bit of Chorizo so it didn't overpower)
Hook's Pointe--Inland Salad

This clearly will be one of the highlights of my year. The company was wonderful, the conversation sparkling, the wine abundant, the food delicious; who could possibly ask for more?

Californians

This is why I hate Californians (full disclosure: I'm a life long Californian). I'm at the gym this morning and as I'm preparing to brush my teeth and shave, the gentleman next to me, whom I've never met or said word one too, says, "I can tell you're not from California."

Long dramatic pause. Okay, I'll bite. I say, "Why is that?"

"You're letting the water run, so you probably don't know about how we used to ration water and fuel."

My response, "I can tell you're not a Marine."

"Why is that?"

"Because I'll be ready to go to work in about five minutes, while you're still primping yourself here at the sink saving water."

I turned and walked off, took my two minute shower, got dressed and went to work. He's probably still over there taking a shower as I write this.

Hey, in all fairness, he does have a point, but the problem is this: most Californians will give you their point unsolicited and that's why people hate us. I hate us too.

Passcodes

I was reading an article yesterday about how people, who are oblivious to security, have placed their private corporate information onto Google Calendar. Google Calendar is secure, if you want it to be, but these folks have decided to make a variety of things public, that shouldn't be.

Here's an example. I typed "passcode" in the search box, and clicked Search Public Events. I was then given a list of hundreds of various conference calls and the passcodes to enter those calls.

I realize that Google Calendar may be a new tool, but why do people constantly surprise me with their level of stupidity? Are we really making better idiots these days?

Sharing Newsfeed

Over the on the right side of the page is a new element for my blog. Basically, as I read news items in my nifty Google newsreader, I can tag those that I find interesting and they'll appear right here in that little window. Spiffy.

Happy to Help

It seems the folks over at ComputerWorld have compiled a list of the Top 21 Biggest Technology Flops. Among those that received the honor of being on this list is "Push Technology," most notably by PointCast.

Remember PointCast? I certainly do. Sometime in 1997, I decided to leave another technology company in Sunnyvale after focusing largely on expanding my management skills. I decided it was time to get back to basics. This meant focusing on my programming skills again and working as a contractor (which I have done ever since).

Somehow, I ended up working at PointCast. If you have a vague memory of the PointCast client, then you know that on every "page" of the application was a small window that would play advertising. I was in charge of a Lotus Notes based application that would track the sales of these advertisements and then generate a text file. This text file was distributed to all of the PointCast clients and told the application when to play which advertisement.

At first, working for PointCast was a delight. Typical Silicon Valley Boom company: company picnics each month (I remember one where we had one of these in the parking lot), wear jeans to work, an amazing lobby with glass from ceiling to floor that showcased this absolutely state-of-the art server farm) and get this, beer on Friday afternoons. Oh yeah, my code looked really good those afternoons and then I had to correct it all come Monday morning.

After a few months, cracks began to show. The biggest red flag was that the CEO just up and mysteriously left about one week after giving a big rah-rah presentation to all of the company about how bright and cheery the future was at PointCast. And then the thrashing began. Since my application tracked all of the sales, it became very apparent that sales people were doing anything to make sales which included selling things that we had no way of actually deploying. So, I spent my remaining months at PointCast changing how sales were represented in the database. This literally was almost a complete redesign every two weeks.

It was no longer fun. In fact, the business analyst I worked closely with termed the work "Project Esperance." He had a map of the world on his cubicle wall, and we determined that Esperance, Australia was the city that was directly on the opposite side of the World from Sunnyvale, California. This is where we often wanted to be.

Some personal issues forced me to move to Southern California, which in hindsight ended up being terrific timing as I just missed the complete implosion of the Silicon Valley. I worked remotely for PointCast for a few months, and then I was told that I wouldn't be needed anymore. At some point over those few months, I did make a trip back to the offices in Sunnyvale and they were nearly empty.

And that's how I helped PointCast make the Top 21 Biggest Technology Flops list.

Who knew?

And what exactly does "You're always on the hunt." mean? Hmmmmm...