Jarrett House North: Other

New lenses on the world

Tim Jarrett — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:27:10 GMT

A few weeks ago my eyes turned bright red. They didn’t hurt but something was clearly wrong. I stopped wearing my contacts for a few days and got rid of the infection that had settled in. In the meantime, I relearned what I already knew: my glasses prescription was woefully out of date. Like, when I got these glasses, Clinton was beginning his second term. They didn’t correct for my astigmatism and I had a headache after a few hours wearing them. And the frames were loose to boot.

So I bit the bullet and got new glasses. They’re a departure—I went to heavier Italian black frames, about ten years after everyone else did, and the effect is a cross between young Peter Sellers and early 1950s British Health birth control glasses. This post is, as they say on Fark, useless without pictures, so I’ll see what I can do about that.

But I had forgotten what it’s like getting used to new glasses. I need to keep my head very still or the distortions moving in my peripheral vision give my stomach flip flops. And trying to glance down at my iPod while driving in was a whole different experience again. Like: if I ever give up contacts for good, I might need to go to bifocals.

So: not exactly the total stylish package that I imagined. But at least I can see through them, when I look straight ahead. I think the bottom line is that I’m really glad that I can switch back to my contacts.

Some days are not profound

Tim Jarrett — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:14:17 GMT

This is one of those days.

Nothing’s really wrong. I’m just weary of winter. The sun is out and I’m not out there. I really, really want to put my snowblower in the back of the garage and pull the grill to the front.

RIP, Myrtle Talbott

Tim Jarrett — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:00:12 GMT

Every now and then, you lose one of the truly influential people in your life. Earlier this year, it was my grandfather. Last week, I got word that another one had passed on: Myrtle Talbott, who taught my once-a-week TAG class when I was in fourth and fifth grade, who was a longtime member of my church, and who was the first teacher I had who really stretched me.

Picture this: I’m in elementary school, glasses and so uncoordinated they give me extra time in the gym outside of classes so I can learn how to do something athletic without falling over. I’ve been through third grade and the teachers are so tired of trying to keep me engaged that they shift me off in the corner with a book. Then fourth grade starts and they round me up with a few other kids, put us on a bus, and send us to another school halfway across town, where Ms. Talbott waits for us, along with a Spanish teacher, CPR practice, creative writing instruction, real-life biology and science, and a bunch of kids who didn’t seem to mind that I was so odd. And she wouldn’t let me just slide by on glibly knowing the answers. Indeed, she was the first teacher I had who gave me an inkling of that uncomfortable truth: sometimes there are no right answers, only tough questions.

Later I saw her all the time in church, but I never made that connection again. She had already put me on the path and I needed to find my own way from there. But I still wish I had been able to come back and see her before she passed away. I don’t think I ever really thanked her for everything she did for me.

So if you see this and were one of her students, stop in at the guestbook and leave a tribute, won’t you? It seems a shame to leave it empty.

Sharper Image Bankruptcy Schadenfreude

Tim Jarrett — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:32:12 GMT

Couldn’t resist pointing to this article about Sharper Image’s bankruptcy filing. I remember back in the 1980s when they were the coolest thing around, at least to a 12 year old boy. Tons of gadgets and insanely expensive lifestyle gizmos.

What changed? Well, for one thing, fewer yuppies. For another, their target audience got older. You can’t continue to draw a new audience, particularly one willing to pay a hipness premium, when you’re pitching to their parents. Exhibit A: Turbo Groomer. No matter how you slice it, a nose and ear hair trimmer is never going to be hip. But the damned thing is always on page 2 of the Sharper Image SkyMall pages. Exhibit B: Fresher Longer. Sorry, guys, it’s Tupperware. No sale.

VW Passat coil packs: How not to get return customers

Tim Jarrett — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:32:26 GMT

I was driving my 2003 Passat home from the office on Tuesday when something weird happened: the car started idling very rough at a stoplight. I haven’t had a car run that rough since the days when I was driving my 1977 MGB. I thought that perhaps I needed to get a tuneup. I did what I used to do on the MG: put the car in neutral and bring the engine speed up. That calmed the idle a little bit, but when I started driving it past the light the problem came back. Then the check engine light came on. And started flashing.

At that point, I should have pulled over and turned off the car, but I was less than a mile from home so I nursed it there and parked it. Then restrained myself from kicking the car.

The rough running turned out to be caused by misfires in two of my four cylinders; when I got the car home I was only running on two cylinders. I was without the car for two days while the dealer replaced two ignition coil packs that had failed and reprogrammed the car’s computer. To my relief the bill wasn’t exorbitant, but it makes me wonder whether the other two coils are due to go too.

The capper is that I happened to look up Volkswagen Passat in Wikipedia, and found this lovely piece of text for the Mark 5 version:

A common problem that arose along with the introduction of the 2001.5 "B5.5" models was a common failure of ignition coil packs. This problem applied only to owners with the 4 cylinder 1.8T engine, whose coil packs are marked with the part number "06B 905 115H". The solution is a simple swap of the coil pack for a newer version, a minor repair in both time and cost.

The article even cites a very detailed page on MyLemon.com about the problem, which apparently mostly affects late 2002 and early 2003 models. My car was one of the first 2003s.

So the question is: why hasn’t Volkswagen issued a recall of these cars?

And now for something completely different...

Tim Jarrett — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 05:28:27 GMT

I give you “Danny Boy,” as performed by the three finest vocalists in the Muppets: the Swedish Chef, Animal, and Beaker.

I hope to God I can stop laughing at this soon.

It’s eerily reminiscent of Tarzan, Tonto, and Frankenstein singing “The Little Drummer Boy,” some ten years later, which is sadly not on Youtube.

Happy New Year

Tim Jarrett — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 21:46:04 GMT

I have a bellyful of lentils and zampone, and I’m watching Virginia in the Gator Bowl. So far, a pretty good start to 2008. It’s snowing again, of course, but you can’t have everything.

I downloaded Dave Winer’s new FlickrFan yesterday, which is worth a look if you are a Mac user—a quick and easy way to put other people’s photos on your screensaver, and as Dave says particularly good for putting content on your HD TV. I don’t currently have a Mac hooked up to our 32" LCD, so right now it’s driving my screensaver. I think the biggest stroke of genius in the thing is the default inclusion of the AP Photos RSS feed—absolutely brilliant to see totally world class photos of events almost as they happen.

Benazir Bhutto assassinated

Tim Jarrett — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 02:18:38 GMT

Sickening: Bhutto Assassinated in Attack on Rally.

If you want an illustration of how badly the Bush administration and its allies around the world have failed in their stated goals of preventing terrorism and “exporting democracy”, look no further. While Bush and Musharraf both decry the violence, it is clear that they themselves cannot take any credit for preventing such an attack.

Merry Christmas, several days late

Tim Jarrett — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 01:39:21 GMT

When you think your coolest Christmas gift is an 11" AllClad skillet, it can safely be said that you are a culinary geek. Especially when you then make up an excuse to use it in the preparation of the Christmas dinner.

Since I got the iPhone around the time of my birthday, my Christmas gifts were pretty moderate, though I was very grateful for my gifts: the skillet, a new pair of slippers (badly needed), and a set of brass collar stays (a gift I didn’t know I needed until I started doing a lot of traveling and our otherwise superb dry cleaner systematically ate all my plastic ones). We’ve had a quiet day just decompressing; tomorrow, with a visit to my family in Pennsylvania, it should be a lot less quiet (and a lot more driving).

Presidential

Tim Jarrett — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:59:48 GMT

No, not the actual candidates; more the realization that today I am of the age where nothing could stop me if I were to decide to run for the highest office in the land.

No, not American Idol judge.

A nice day—got a fair amount of house cleaning done. Amazing how being a little domestic feels really good from time to time. Also had Niall and his fiancée Julia over along with our next-door neighbors Ross and Heide, which was fun.

The big news, of course, is that I’m now within striking distance of getting an iPhone. And at this point I have to be honest: I’m more excited about getting rid of the old Sony Ericsson right now, which is a total boat anchor.

Post-turkey haze

Tim Jarrett — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 04:03:21 GMT

I’d love to be able to blame a caloric coma on my posting drought, but of course that would only explain yesterday and today, and not Tuesday or Wednesday. What can I say: work, like sand, piles up against the breakwater of a vacation as though it is determined to fit the same volume of labor in half the time.

We have had a nice holiday with Lisa’s folks. The meal (turkey a la Alton with brown gravy, sausage and apple stuffing, mashed potatoes, Swiss chard smothered with onion and bacon, green beans with a little olive oil and sea salt, and the requisite cranberry sauce) is by now approaching familiarity, which is by no means bad. For instance: this year the stuffing wasn’t bone dry!

So, what am I thankful for? Many things which I will not list in this space, and some I will:

That our forebears had the first Thanksgiving feast in the new world 388 years ago, in Virginia (take that, Plymouth!)
That a more perfect cell phone has been created, even if I don’t own one yet
That the Democrats control Congress, and, even if they can’t scrape up enough political courage among themselves to pass gas without fear of the President, that at least they are better than the clowns who were in there before, and that none of them have been indicted yet
That I’m slowly learning not to eat everything on the table at Thanksgiving

There are more things, but that will do for now.

I can always tell when fall arrives...

Tim Jarrett — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 02:34:38 GMT

...because the Black Dog starts sniffing around the door.

So far, it’s not much more than a sniff. But here I am in New York, ready to go on stage at Carnegie Hall for the first time in my life, and I’m feeling a little blah about it. Well, terrified would be more accurate—not about going on stage, but about leaving the hotel room.

The good news is that after all this time I can recognize my apparent agoraphobia for what it is—mild depression waiting until I drop my guard to spin up into a full fugue. And I think that I might be able to keep it at bay tonight, for I have a secret weapon. It’s called dinner in New York City, provided I can find some people to go with me.

Visitation

Tim Jarrett — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 13:25:27 GMT

I had one of those dreams last night, the kind I almost never have: I dreamed about an ex-girlfriend. No, not that kind of dream. I don’t, as a rule, dream of ex-girlfriends; as Lou Reed once sang, “when things/end for me, they end.” But last night I did. In this dream, I was at my office, and headed for the door when she came in. We haven’t seen each other for 13 years, so there was a brief greeting and a comparison of notes.

In the dream, she told me about driving up to Boston from Virginia and about her mansion in DC that had to be subdivided to sell. I told her about work, about the things that I do, about life when I was at Microsoft.

In the end, I told her it had been nice to see her and she agreed. Then she said, “Let me know when you’re hiring.” I was puzzled—software isn’t her field. She continued, “You are so passionate about your work, you care so much, that I can’t help but want to work here.”

Then I woke up.

But honestly, the dream couldn’t have come at a better time. It’s been very mixed at work, a lot of challenges and trials, but also some exciting things just around the corner. And sometimes in the thick of things it’s hard to remember that I’m doing what I love to do. I think I needed to hear an affirmation, and dream ex provided it. Thanks, dream ex!

Busy

Tim Jarrett — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:14:15 GMT

Let me count the ways:

Trying to track down the authors of a Microsoft code sample which essentially disappeared when Microsoft pulled down the GotDotNet community site.
Being gobsmacked by this article about “Conception Day” in Russia—a state holiday set aside to reverse the population decline, for exactly the purpose that you might imagine. Gotta be a hoax...
Watching the WSJ try to find new angles to cover in Wikipedia. The real fun is in the discussions, huh? Wait until they start covering watched articles and user pages...
Trying hard not to laugh at the description of Giuliani journalistic chronicler Wayne Barrett as “a sort of dark Boswell to Rudy’s Johnson” ...in a note about Giuliani’s philandering.

Pixplosion

Tim Jarrett — Tue, 29 May 2007 14:11:31 GMT

I posted a whole bunch of photos to Flickr last night from this weekend’s trip to Richmond to see Esta graduate. Many many things at which to marvel, including a sea of academic regalia, some pretty great party faces, Richmond’s very own Art Deco movie theatre and SR-71 reconnaissance plane, and others.

I also posted some foliage shots. The iris bulbs that my dad sent me from my grandmother’s garden in North Carolina finally produced flowers this year, and they are extraordinary. I spent much of the morning and afternoon yesterday putting down mulch in our flower beds and it was nice to be out in nature again. It was also nice to contemplate a reduction in weeds. We’ve stayed away from mulch after our experiences in Kirkland, where the weeds seemed to be able to grow in anything thanks to all the rain, but last summer’s barrage of uninvited guests convinced me to give the mechanical strategy of protecting the soil another try.

Alive

Tim Jarrett — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:19:40 GMT

As I have written many times before, the reports of my blog death have been mildly exaggerated. My travel schedule is, in the immortal words of Snap!, gettin’ kinda hectic. But England prevails.

Holiday meme

Tim Jarrett — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 03:24:03 GMT

Yep. When there’s no room in the brain for anything else, try a meme. As seen on Isis:

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate?

The nog, but only if I make it. True story: we used to do team Christmas parties in my first job, and we were all supposed to bring refreshments. I brought eggnog, and not knowing any better decided I was going to bring real eggnog. This one had a fifth of whiskey in it, and the whole team was pretty darned unproductive the rest of the afternoon.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?

Actually, Santa wraps presents then sets them under the tree. Yes, Virginia, Santa Claus is a grammar Nazi.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?

Growing up I was always a white lights on tree, no lights on house kid. These days it’s colored lights on the tree and while we haven’t done any exterior decorations, one of these years…

4. Do you hang mistletoe?

Never did. I was always a weird, no touch kid and never wanted that stuff. Now, I may have to find a way to sneak some into the house.

5. When do you put your decorations up?

Late. This year, very late. I might get a tree up by Christmas.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?

The quail risotto that I made a few Christmases ago in Pennsylvania with quail my Uncle shot. Including plucking the shot out of the quail as I prepared it.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child?

Christmas Eve services in my home church. There would always be an organ recital at 10:30 pm and our organist was into moody minor key modern arrangements. I can’t remember the composer who did the Greensleeves arrangement that we heard year after year but it’s stuck with me.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?

I don’t remember but my Mom probably does. Maybe I just figured it out.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?

I've always kept away from spoiling the surprise, but my wife's family believes in opening presents early.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?

Tree is artificial and pre-lighted, so sets of balls and ornaments that match are first—balancing the colors around the tree. Then heirloom ornaments. Finally the star, which I optimistically bought one year out of college and have been storing and using ever since, which has been challenging considering it’s blown glass.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it?

Both. Love it when it’s falling and it’s cold, dread it when it’s four months old and everywhere.

12. Can you ice skate?

Yes, but I haven’t tried in years.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?

Maybe my first iPod, in 2001 when I was a grad student and we were living on a fixed income. It was a gift from Lisa.

14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you?

Thoughtful and watchful anticipation of the coming of Christ and meditating on the meaning of forgiveness. Followed closely by not killing people at shopping malls.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?

My mom’s chocolate covered candied orange peel.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?

Tie: Being together with my parents and sister on Christmas Day, and my wife’s traditional Christmas Eve dinner of seven (or at least multiple) fishes.

17. What tops your tree?

See answer to #10.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving?

When I’m feeling depressed and self effacing, giving. When I’m feeling strong and honest, receiving.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song?

Right now, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”

20. Candy canes?

Oh yeah, preferably with a good book.

21. Favorite Christmas movie?

A Charlie Brown Christmas. Though I still get hysterical giggles when I think about the scene in the mid-90s Charlie Brown Christmas special when Peppermint Patty falls off the curb, and Marcie asks, “Slouching toward Bethlehem, sir?”

22. What do you leave for Santa?

Whiskey. Or holiday ale.

Tagging: Zalm, Small Cafe.

A holiday hint

Tim Jarrett — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 18:39:01 GMT

ThinkChristian.net: Protest or Celebrate?. A nicely done tweak at those who protest the lack of publicly endorsed Nativity scenes and insist “It’s Christmas, dammit” when you wish them Happy Holidays, in the form of a letter from the Big Guy himself:

How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of your own. I don’t care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth just, GET ALONG AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER. Now, having said that let Me go on.

If it bothers you that the town in which you live doesn’t allow a scene depicting My birth, then just get rid of a couple of Santas and snowmen and put in a small Nativity scene on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that there wouldn’t be any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be many of them all around town.

Also see this post on Universal Hub about the aforementioned anti-Happy Holidays crazies.

It was 17 years ago today (er, yesterday)…

Tim Jarrett — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 04:03:09 GMT

At perhaps my strangest birthday, in 1989, I had friends and family together at my house. One friend (who I’ve lost touch with—where are you, Jenny Choi?) bought me a copy of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses—hot on the controversy tip, and just prior to the fatwa. My family got me a copy of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band—the first time I had heard most of that album.

And a couple of my friends decided to get me a belly dancer. Yep, at my house. I was so mortified I didn’t even know where to look—which was, perhaps, the point. I still don’t know whether to thank Jim and Andrew or throttle them.

And what’s most astonishing to me is that that particular memory is almost old enough to be drafted. Half a life ago.

Happy birthday to me

Tim Jarrett — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 03:15:41 GMT

The end of the year has gotten to be a much busier time since my career started spanning both product management and sales. (As the director of product management for iET Solutions, our North American sales engineers report to me, and I’m frequently out on the road to talk with existing customers or work with prospects or analysts.) So the holiday month of December takes on a combination of anticipation and heightened stress for me as last minute sales calls and end of quarter business combine with holidays, the Pops, and church choir services.

Thus it was a rare pleasure to actually enjoy my birthday yesterday, which included not only tributes from Isis and A Small Café (and, Isis, just for that I may have to break out my scanner and my high school pictures; the photo illustrations on both posts indicate the ongoing dividends of befriending a photographer during those sketchy days of high school fashion) but a rare visit from Charlie and Carie, who were in town to finalize their move to Manhattan by finishing the sale of their New Hampshire house. So I got to enjoy some serious cooking last night. We made a risotto with prosciutto and peas—Charlie’s first; he even got to stir the pan a fair bit—and then had a chicken that I had boned and stuffed with a mixture of sausage, bread crumb, parmesan (no, not parmagiano reggiano—this stuff came from Argentina and was powdered. But hey, it was in in our fridge), garlic, and parsley. Which, for those of you who have the Marcella Hazan Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, came out looking nothing like the illustration on page 346. A trussing needle is not an optional piece of equipment for preparing this particular bird. But it was delicious anyway.

And it’s a good thing that Saturday was relaxed and delicious, because getting in Thursday at midnight, and coming home early from work on Friday to deal with our wommitin’ dogs as they recovered from the anesthesia of their tooth cleaning, was not fun. But that’s (mostly) behind us now, and the pink streaks from the Pepto Bismol are fading along the dogs’ muzzles, and we are going to be OK, and life will go on for another year. And next time I might reflect on how much time has passed since certain photographs, but maybe I won’t, either.

Side effects

Tim Jarrett — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 05:57:30 GMT

I’m still fighting this cold. Today was better but tonight I’m still hacking hard enough to pulse a vein in my forehead. And it’s sapping my energy, both at work and on the blog (as if the longeurs between posts on this blog weren’t bad enough, now my limited brain cells are being crowded out by mucus). And as of last night I’m all out of Robitussin (aside: who came up with that name? It sounds like it’s meant for robots).

So my brain is fighting with my body, which points out that there is a need to do something about the pounds of extra turkey in the fridge. As a result, tonight was turkey pot pie night. Somehow in between coughs we assembled two, which are now in the freezer, with one more waiting in the fridge (we didn’t make enough crust—that’s tomorrow). And I have to come up with a Christmas card soon.

Is this cold over yet? Can I please get it out of my system before the weather turns cold again and makes things worse?

Back on line

Tim Jarrett — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 04:07:03 GMT

Quiet few days after Thanksgiving. We had a successful dinner and then spent Friday catching up on sleep and doing … well, a whole bunch of other stuff I don’t remember. Lisa’s folks, here since Tuesday, took off yesterday, leaving the rest of the weekend for us to recoup.

And I had to recoup from a few things. A nasty cold, for one, that settled in my throat sometime on Wednesday, followed by nasty headaches brought on by all the coughing. I’ll survive but hope that it lifts pretty soon.

In the meantime… what’s up with the world? It’s been in the mid-50s here all week while in Seattle… snow?

Mr. Morton, take your neuroma back

Tim Jarrett — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 19:53:31 GMT

I’ve had a lot of difficulty standing and walking this week; I woke up on Tuesday after a long rehearsal Monday night with very strong pain in the toes on my right foot and wasn’t able to put any weight on my second or third toes—meaning I couldn’t walk very quickly and putting on a shoe was torture. I managed to get around it through the remaining four rehearsals and Thursday night’s performance by pushing my foot over the edge of the risers on which we sing, so my weight rested on the back of the foot and the front was free. But climbing through the airports on Friday was murder, and things didn’t seem to be getting better.

So Saturday I took myself down to the Walk-In Clinic (yes, I know; the irony) at Mt. Auburn Hospital, where they indicated that no bones were broken. Instead, they think I have a Morton’s Neuroma, a condition where a foot nerve gets pinched between the toe bones and a shoe and swells, developing a growth that leaves you in more or less constant discomfort. Um, yay.

So now I have to hie myself to a podiatrist. I didn’t really think I was old enough for podiatry. Welcome to my thirties.

Catching my breath

Tim Jarrett — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 14:47:59 GMT

I haven’t really been any less busy in the last week—I was in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, Chicago on Wednesday (hence the no blogging), and have been trying to balance my BSO and church choir commitments. Fortunately our kitchen is in a state where I can’t do anything on it until the plasterers are done, or I’d be a wreck.

But for once I’m breathing easily. I managed to arrange a break in my schedule this morning so that I can help manage the contractors for the plaster work, and I have some time off this afternoon. It’s a short respite—in the interim, I have a trio of meetings and then on Sunday I hop a plane for Salt Lake City. But I somehow have the feeling that I’ll survive now.

Crikey.

Tim Jarrett — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 15:50:11 GMT

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin killed. And the tributes pour in. I’m sure I’m not alone in praying for Terri and their kids.

And thanks to Irregular Webcomic, who have been running a Steve and Terry (sic) tribute feature since the earliest days of the strip, for their tribute today. You may need to know that in the strip, there’s an incarnation of Death for every possible way to die, and all of them have been going after Steve, and having to let him go, for many years.

The news is shocking because Steve Irwin did cheat death for so many years to bring happiness and knowledge to so many people. Rest in peace, Steve.

Jumping, saying hi

Tim Jarrett — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 05:28:36 GMT

Finished reading The Discoveries last week. A recap of the major scientific discoveries of the 20th century, complete with the actual research papers, it plunged me back into my physics past.

It made me think about quantum physics and how it has really changed everyday life. Example: while for some medical imaging ultrasound is the way to go (including the echocardiogram and fetal imaging), to view the detailed inner workings of the organism you have to go CT—computed tomography. Three dimensional reconstructions of 2d x-ray slices.

And what’s an x-ray? High wavelength light being absorbed and reflected from different densities of materials, and a little fluorescence.

And what is fluorescence? A photon’s energy is transferred to an electron, kicking it into a higher energy state—usually followed by retransmission of the energy. It’s as if the electron is jumping, saying hi, then dropping back down.

I thought about this as I watched our dog Jefferson, an inveterate ladies’ dog, greet a crowd of teenage girls out for a walk tonight, as he stood on his hind legs, wagged his tail, barked once, and sat down again in the grass.

Okay, really: enough of this.

Tim Jarrett — Thu, 11 May 2006 23:49:57 GMT

This is now the third time in two months (approximately) that I have been felled by a sinus cold. It’s taken residence in my throat too. I want my immune system to step up and do its job. Unlikely with the rain that we’re having right now, though: there’s no sunshine predicted for the next ten days. Fortunately I’ll be in San Francisco next week for the Gartner ITXpo—and they have sunshine.

Oh yeah: George, are you in town next week?

The Pops, Jesus, and Santa

Tim Jarrett — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 21:50:12 GMT

Singing with the Boston Pops has been a mixed blessing this season. I've had to confront my lack of holiday spirit head on, but I've also been given plenty of exposure to the lighter side of the season--the side that is about excited children and Santa and cheery singalongs.

It's sometimes difficult to reconcile all of the facets of Christmas. Yes, Christmas is traditionally among the most depressing times of the year; yes, it's a solemn religious holiday that observes the birth of Jesus, the arrival of a baby who would die on the cross as a replacement sacrifice for our sins and be raised from the dead in the promise of our ultimate redemption. But it is also, and perhaps equally fundamentally, a season of hope and love. The knowledge of Christ's ultimate destiny deepens that sense of hope and makes it more poignant, rather than diminishing it.

As for Santa Claus: Tony Pierce has had some very pointed things to say on the subject of the Big Guy with the Beard over the years. Certainly the focus on Santa to the exclusion of Christ is a mistake. But I think it's also a mistake to exclude Santa, who provides a focus for the secular parts of the holiday in a context of love and acceptance. Yes, there is some greed that creeps in around the edges. But if you could stand on the stage at Symphony Hall in Boston and see the look on the kids' faces when Santa Claus enters the hall, you'd see no greed. You'd see excitement, and joy. And happiness. And I'd rather see that by having a Santa--a proxy for hope and love--come into the hall than some actor dressed as Christ, or worse as Mary carrying a babydoll. If we must risk cheapening something with pageantry, let us cheapen the Victorian image of Santa rather than the cosmic mystery of the Redeemer.

Tree trimming

Tim Jarrett — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 18:20:41 GMT

We get a little closer to the holidays every day. Our Christmas cards are just about ready to drop in the mail—at least, once I finish addressing the envelopes and signing them, which will probably take another three days. (So if yours is late, apologies). We got the tree up last night with a minimum of loss of life and only two broken ornaments—considering the ornaments went from Kirkland to Arlington with minimal protection that’s not too bad. And our new front door supports our wreath hanger, so I’ll be picking up an evergreen wreath on the way home.

It took about three weeks, but I’m finally getting the holiday spirit. (Ironically, I think it was the cross country sales trip that did it. Being removed from all the hustle and bustle of the holiday makes it that much clearer which things are important.) Alas, I have another three days (at a minimum) in the office this week, so I probably won’t really get into the spirit until the day before.

Font for the nations, now under open license

Tim Jarrett — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 04:30:58 GMT

The new version of Gentium, a Unicode typeface family designed to provide well designed characters for all the Latin (and Greek, and soon Cyrillic) characters in Unicode, is available under the SIL Open Font License which allows modification and redistribution of the font. All you multilingual font designers out there, hop on.

I last wrote about Gentium in 2003, which is the source of the leading quote on the main project page for Gentium. Maybe I’ll play with it again to see if the bold weights have been improved—or the size on Windows machines.

Complete with souvenirs

Tim Jarrett — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 22:18:17 GMT

It's probably a good sign that people are starting to joke about the Parisian riots. I mean, as opposed to my horrified silence as I watched most of the coverage over the last few weeks. Anyway, the Attu Sees All blog claims that this is the latest souvenir trying to cash in on the civil unrest: the Parisien Matchbox car.

(Over at the Boycott Sony blog, I'm getting links from the damnedest sites. For every Slashdot or BBC, there are probably a hundred links from random sites like Attu. In addition to making me happy that the word about Sony BMG's shenanigans is spreading, I'm finding the most random stuff imaginable on some of these sites... the above is a minor case in point.)

Bad week to be melancholic

Tim Jarrett — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 15:19:50 GMT

Man. If there is a week that having seasonal affective disorder (or the functional equivalent thereof) is a pain in the ass, it would be this week:

Feels like I never left Seattle. More later after I’ve had some coffee.

Happy anniversary to us

Tim Jarrett — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 16:52:44 GMT

I don’t do it publicly nearly often enough, but I would like to thank my very patient wife Lisa today and wish her a very happy anniversary. (For the record, this is apparently the bronze/pottery/linen/lace anniversary, none of which are going to fit in my carry-on bags, alas.)

When we got married back in McLean, Virginia, and left the service for the reception, sleepless and getting slightly punchy, and left the church for that awful limo with the skanky Persian rug and the lingering cigarette smell, I turned to her and said, “It’s all uphill from here.” And you know? It really has been.

Aux armes, citoyens

Tim Jarrett — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 17:12:19 GMT

How are you planning to celebrate Bastille Day (er, 14 juillet)? Me, I think a glass of something French is in order, along with a big raspberry for Margaret Thatcher for once remarking of the French: “who can trust a people who celebrate, as their national event, a jailbreak?”

Wonder if we can get a chorus of La Marseillaise going tonight at Berkman. That would be something worth podcasting... At the least, take a second to download the first verse from this comprehensive La Marseillaise site.

Pack up your bombs....

Tim Jarrett — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 16:53:18 GMT

Brilliant, brilliant letter from the London News Review to the perpetrators of yesterday’s attack. Best bit excerpted below:

...we’re better than you. Everyone is better than you. Our city works. We rather like it. And we’re going to go about our lives. We’re going to take care of the lives you ruined. And then we’re going to work. And we’re going down the pub.

Check out the original for the punchline, which completes the title of this post. (Via Tin Man.)

Four explosions rock London transit

Tim Jarrett — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 14:13:18 GMT

Oh hell. CNN: London rocked by explosions. CNN says that it now appears that three explosions went off in the Tube, and another ripped through a double-decker bus as it was approaching Russell Square.

Lisa and I stayed in Russell Square during our first stay in London in 1999. We felt it was one of the most peaceful places in that busy city. Sadly, not anymore.

Update: Jeff Jarvis has a growing list of links and first hand reports from London bloggers.

Well, that was interesting

Tim Jarrett — Sun, 26 Jun 2005 09:20:45 GMT

It’s early morning on Sunday the 26th. I thought I’d be posting about the free Hatch Shell concert from earlier tonight. As it turns out, though, I slept through it.

And when I say “slept through it,” I mean I went upstairs for a nap at 4:30 PM and woke up at midnight.

And now, of course, my body doesn’t want to go back to sleep because it’s already had almost eight hours.

What’s the opposite of insomnia?

I have long suspected that my occasional marathon naps have something to do with depression, but this is a new one—I don’t feel depressed, just disoriented. Unless, of course, I’m hiding something from myself.

Where I hope to be in 75 years

Tim Jarrett — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 19:45:32 GMT

Boston Globe: 82 years later, R.I. couple still holding hands. Tarnation. If Lisa and I ever make it that far—and I’m concerned about our individual vitality rather than the vitality of our marriage when I say that—I hope I’m saying “She had legs. And I said to myself, ‘I need to meet that broad’.” And I hope I can still move fast enough to keep Lisa from smacking me. :)

Oh: and how perfect is it that he was a typesetter? If there is ever a job that prepares one for the long view, it is that.

On that note: congrats to Furious on her nuptials last weekend. Sounds like quite a party—and I hope you’ll post the full vows at some point, as “I vow either to cook or clean up but rarely both” is about as perfect a replacement for “obey” as I’ve heard in this two-career world. Also have to give big ups to the choice of “Handle With Care” for a first dance, even though there’s an interesting contrast with that vow. I too have been uptight and made a mess, but the beautiful thing about marriage is that one never has to clean it up oneself.

Doing the right thing: Rogers Cadenhead

Tim Jarrett — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 14:24:49 GMT

Congrats to Rogers Cadenhead, briefly notorious for his successful domain name speculation exercise resulting in his acquisition of www.benedictxvi.com, for doing the right thing and pointing the domain to ModestNeeds.org, a local charity. He could have made a bunch of profit from the domain, but this is clearly the net positive choice for everybody. I hope the television crews don’t stop calling. I think he should at least get a free trip to Vatican City and an audience, if not one of those hats.

Regarding Dave Winer’s suggestion: I think there will be a healthy amount of blogging about the Pope’s actions and that it should have some central location. But I don’t think anyone going to benedictxvi.com for faith reasons is going to be persuaded by a bunch of critical articles. Setting up popeblog.com or ratzinger.org will accomplish the same thing.

Job update: reentering the workforce

Tim Jarrett — Mon, 18 Apr 2005 15:50:18 GMT

Astute readers (or folks who click to my site rather than just scanning my RSS feed) may have noticed that my tagline, which formerly read “This blogger is for hire,” has changed. Later today I will start my new job as product manager for iET Solutions, a company that makes software that manages IT services based on the ITIL standard, as well as more traditional customer and IT management offerings including helpdesk and CRM.

I thought it might be helpful for other people in the job market to get some perspective on my search. My full time search started in November, and I received my first offer in early April, almost exactly six months later. During the intervening time, I spoke with almost 40 companies; had first-round interviews with about 15 of them; second round or higher with 8; and secured two offers.

Position availability for product managers has been bursty. There was a hot period for about six weeks from November through early December, then no real positions available until about late February, when things suddenly got hot again. This may be a specifically Boston issue, or it may speak to factors in the economic cycle that influence the availability of this kind of marketing position.

I used several lead management methods to identify new opportunities. Monster and Craigslist were in the mix, as were conversations with friends and colleagues at networking events and ongoing daily conversation. I listed my resumé on Monster as well as on my own blog, and found that both brought a roughly equal number of hits in any given month, though the nibbles from people who found me on Google tended to be less targeted and less serious. No one who contacted me mentioned having read my blog. I also worked with three recruiting and placement firms and spoke with many more. Some of the experiences with placement firms were very positive, and I will be happy to provide specific recommendations offline. The recruiter who placed me at iET Solutions was a single-time recruiter (not someone with whom I had looked at other firms) who found my resumé on Monster.

What’s next for me and this blog? Well, it’s likely I won’t update as often as I have been doing for the last six to eight months, but I anticipate continuing this project well into the foreseeable future. There may be some new directions in content, responding to some of the challenges of my new job. I hope you’ll enjoy the ride as much as I plan to.

Urgh.

Tim Jarrett — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 17:55:59 GMT

It’s been a hard couple of days, for whatever reason. I have had bursts of morning energy followed by absolute collapse in the afternoons. Not sure what’s going on, but it might be one of the following, presented in increasing order of likeliness:

my mono (which I somehow caught in college) might be relapsing
my hereditary thyroid problem might finally be surfacing
the Black Dog might still have a big paw on my chest (unlikely for a number of reasons that will shortly be disclosed)
the allergist at MGH who determined that I had no seasonal allergies, only allergies to dust mites, might have been wrong
Or I might just be catching up on sleep after a week of hard driving (including time spent driving to SAT prep classes and on my big vacation spree, I spent about 44 hours behind the wheel from Sunday the 3rd to Tuesday the 13th)

I hope it’s not the last one. I have about ten more hours of driving this weekend: down to New Jersey to collect my family and return everyone back home, where there will be a newly finished (though probably not painted) doorway in the kitchen.

Have a Blogcritical April Fools Day

Tim Jarrett — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 18:47:42 GMT

Blogcritics: It's April 1st, Fools. Collection of more than 20 foolish posts in honor of the day. Personal fave is “Joni, Ani, Tori Form Supergroupi.”

I should perhaps be clear that my previous review was not meant as an April Fools joke.

Ten things I’ve done (that you probably haven’t)

Tim Jarrett — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 15:33:49 GMT

It’s probably a sign of my impending intellectual bankruptcy that I’m succumbing to memeposting, but I like this one (via Todd at Frolic, who got it from EveTushnet.com, and who also points to these folks). Do I have ten things? Well…

Been a state spelling champion. (What, you didn’t know there were state spelling champions? Only in Virginia.)
Shaken James Michener’s hand wearing clothes that I had flown in the day before, since my luggage had gotten lost en route.
Sung under the baton of Robert Shaw, twice—once at the Kennedy Center.
Jammed—and recorded—with Dave Brubeck in the Washington National Cathedral.
Fractured my sternum.
Sung for President Bill Clinton and NBC anchor (and Wahoo) Katie Couric on the same day.
Asked six or seven senior Microsoft executives when they were going to stop pissing off a substantial community of potential customers by calling Open Source Software a “cancer.”
Helped build software that’s saving American lives and taxpayer money in places like Afghanistan—and supporting humanitarian missions in Cambodia.
With the help of 15 close friends, sampled beer from more than 50 countries in one sitting.
Driven cross country in four days.

What’s interesting to me looking back at this list is that many of the items are about my singing—which I haven’t really done since I got back to Boston. Time to change that.

New phone time?

Tim Jarrett — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 19:06:12 GMT

After the umpteenth dropped call on my cell phone, this one from a recruiter, I started finally looking into some options for fixing my lousy cell reception. The first should have been obvious but wasn’t—the form to report a network issue to Cingular/AT&T Wireless.

The second was to investigate new phones. My requirements: Bluetooth, camera, and ability to install third-party software like the Salling Clicker. This pointed me back at Symbian-platform phones, and a couple likely candidates from Nokia: the 6820, which Lisa currently uses, and the 7610, which may be out of my price range.

I wonder if it’s time to look at Sony Erickson again…

Discomfortingly accurate

Tim Jarrett — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 18:04:08 GMT

Salon: I got derailed somehow!. I’ve been saving this one in my aggregator because the general tone is just about right. Boy, do I understand what “functionally depressed” means. Not to mention “walking, talking avoidance mechanism.” File this one under psychology of the black dog.

Farewell, Uncle Duke

Tim Jarrett — Tue, 22 Feb 2005 18:07:32 GMT

MSNBC: Writer Hunter S. Thompson commits suicide. Dr. Gonzo’s insistence on eradicating the illusion of objectivity in his reporting paved the way for the blog world’s embrace of subjectivity. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to overcome his demons.

I feel a little like I did when Elliott Smith killed himself. Not quite the same sense of loss—I wasn’t that emotionally connected to Thompson—but the same anger. There is no bigger opponent for some of us than our own black angels of darkness.

Happy intergalactic Valentine’s Day

Tim Jarrett — Mon, 14 Feb 2005 19:58:16 GMT

Astronomy Picture of the Day: The Rosette Nebula. Such a cool photo:

Furiously good news

Tim Jarrett — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 20:07:17 GMT

Congrats to Fury for qualifying for the US Masters Short Course National Championship swimming meet in breaststroke. And for cracking open a fine Canadian craft beer, La Fin du Monde, to celebrate. I wholeheartedly approve.

Job hunt as personal philosophy

Tim Jarrett — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 04:59:12 GMT

Wil Wheaton writes compellingly today about the outcome of his latest audition. There are a couple of things here that spoke to me. First: Wil, like me, is in an industry that is playing the hiring game in a very risk averse way. In Wil’s industry, Hollywood, it makes a lot of sense—people literally make the part. In my industry, the software startups are coming off a multi-year venture funding “nuclear winter,” and now more than ever the old rule applies: A companies hire A players; B companies hire C players. That leaves people who aren’t picture perfect matches for product management jobs (including competitor experience, or industry experience, or multiple successful product launches, looking for the one position that they are the exact right fit for.

These fiscal realities don’t make managing the inevitable downtimes any easier, though. As Wil writes today: “I still haven't heard anything about the amazing movie, and it's getting harder by the day to maintain hope.”

This is the hardest part of the search. Last week I had what I think was a turning point: I was talking to Lisa after one particularly frustrating interview and started listening to myself as she offered some responses and helpful thoughts. I was rejecting everything she said out of hand, speaking very negatively, preemptively shutting her options down before she had a chance to elaborate on them.

And I realized. I wanted to shut down the options because I didn’t want to hope. I was afraid to get hurt again.

I decided two things that day:

I shouldn’t be afraid to fail. There is at this point nothing to lose.
I am going to start writing down when I think negatively about myself, and diving into why.

With any luck, doing both those things will help me catch some of my negative thinking before it paralyzes me again.

Sixty years

Tim Jarrett — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 19:24:37 GMT

Today is the sixtieth anniversary of the arrival of Allied (Soviet) forces at Auschwitz and Birkenau.

While I can’t find words to express the mix of sorrow, rage, disgust, and shock that still fills me when I contemplate what happened in that camp and others like it across Nazi Germany, I have to try. Because we’re mistaken if we think it will never happen again.

On a more optimistic note, I was encouraged to read Putin’s remarks at the ceremony to the effect that Russia still has anti-semitism and that he is ashamed to have to acknowledge it.

More Holocaust resources:

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and its special exhibit on the liberation of Auschwitz
A Virtual Tour of Auschwitz
Nizkor Project FAQ, which addresses and rebuts arguments put forth by Holocaust deniers.
Responses to the Holocaust at the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia