Grateful and fearful

Needed to put some thoughts into words and 140 characters weren't enough.

With Tivo, watching live TV is an activity reserved for nights when we're too lazy to get the remote, or when Charlie blocks the sensor. Fortunately, this behavior paid off recently when we stumbled upon MSNBC Dateline's episode of "America Now: Lost in Suburbia".

We were captivated immediately - which we seem to do easily, especially with hotel live TVs - as the story is a reminder of how fast one's life can change in the blink of an eye and we should not be too content. Unfortunate events (medical, layoff, etc) can hit and spiral out of control, anywhere, anytime, to anybody.

One of those profiled was a former human resources executive, who was laid off. After months of job search and stress building up in the family, she finally took a night job. The part time job was cleaning offices, the same types where she use to work in as an executive. 

As we watched the show, I said Jean: "If this ever happened to us, I would go to McD." "Heck no, we can't afford to eat there!" she replied. No, I told her, for me to work there, not to eat fries.

Jean and I try to be grateful daily of our fortunate situation and live in constant (healthy) fear of the what-ifs.

http://insidedateline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/23/12376840-in-suburban-america-middle-class-begins-to-confront-poverty

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I'm running again

Twelve years ago in 1998 I ran my first marathon with Team In Training and it was a great experience, so much fun that I did another one in 1999.

This year I'm back at it again and this time Jean is running it with me! The last serious run we did was the San Jose Rock'n'Roll half marathon, but was 3 years, so we're back at square one with training.

If you're able, help us raise money to find a cure for blood cancer and to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma, hey and it's tax deductible :-)

Thank you very much in advance. Here's the donation page.

reckless driver pisses me off!

I try not to rant, but this morning I saw a lady that just pissed me off!

She was going at least 30 miles per hour in the Mountain View Caltrain parking lot.  No, the parking lot wasn't empty, it was full of cars and people.  OK, so I thought I'd give her the benefit of thought, maybe she is in some kind of emergency, maybe she is trying to catch the train, maybe there's a baby on the way? But nope, none of that, she goes at least 15 mph, pulls into a parking spot and slowly comes out of the van.  I swear, she even looked herself in the mirror a bit before coming out of her van.  Walks slowly to the train station.

I was so tempted to go up and ask her "any reason why you were driving so fast in a crowded parking lot?"

Reminds me of the "mean people suck" t-shirt, I need to find one that says "reckless driver suck!"

not mature enough, Hmmph!

Apparently I'm not old enough.

Few weeks ago when we went to Vegas for the weekend, Timmy and I got carded at the blackjack table. Dealer asked for our IDs, which is good because that's his job. But after we handed him the ID, he giggled and said "oh... you guys are definitely old enough"

Then at a recent Purdue alumni event, a gentleman came up to me "so you're a fresh grad, huh?" Then he took a look at my name tag which has our graduating year and with a very surprised voice "oh no, you're not a recent grad..." Not sure if that's a complement or not.

Oh well, at least these aren't as bad as when I still get carded for buying lottos, apparently you need to be 18 to buy the lotto.

2006 TV ad - "Get of a Mac"

During our move last month from Cupertino to Mountain View, I had to pack up our 2 computers. One was the PC and the other was the iMac. Not even exaggerating...  I captioned the photo

"30 minutes to pack the PC and 3 mins for my iMac"


While having lunch with some friend here at Apple, one of them said that reminded him of the "Get a Mac" TV ad from 2006