At the start of every international hockey tournament I am always worried.  Canada is always the favorite or one of the favorites but so often Canada disappoints.  Maybe my expectations are too high since disappointment means not winning it all.

I remember how Canada finished fourth at Nagano in 1998 and I felt so bad for Gretzky because he never won a gold medal.  I remember Canada losing the first World Cup in 1996 to the United States because Mike Richter stood on his head stopping everything.  In 2002 though the curse seemed to be broken as Canada won the gold and I loved that team and watching Gretzky, the architect of the team, celebrate from his box.  But then Canada finished 7th in Torino in 2006.

Canadian athletes also in general seem to not be the type that rise to the occasion.  They seem to be almost too polite, sympathizing with their opponent, being embarrassed about winning too much.  This is unlike American athletes who seem to love overcoming all obstacles, winning no matter the odds.  It’s Canadian politeness vs. the American dream.

But in these Olympics Canadians no longer are the polite hosts, allowing others to win on their soil.  Canada, who had never won any gold medals at home, suddenly won the most of any country and broke the record for most gold medals in the Winter Olympics.  It was stunning.

Despite this apparent change I was still so worried about this game.  Maybe it’s because the thought of losing to the U.S. would be more painful than losing to anyone else.  Even though I consider myself mostly American when it comes to hockey I’m still a little Canadian boy playing street hockey all day with the neighborhood kids.

I was hoping that Canada would score quickly, put the U.S. back on its heels, and continue to press and hold onto win, outshooting the U.S. 2 to 1 with Ryan Miller stopping practically everything.  The game seemed to go as planned with Canada getting the first goal.  But the U.S. was going toe to toe with Canada, Canada was not dominating.  Canada then got the second goal and I felt good.  But then Canada started playing conservatively and I remember thinking that’s a bad idea.

Soon the U.S. scored on a goal that was not an easy one to stop for Roberto Luongo but something I thought Ryan Miller could have stopped.  Canada then started pressing the attack again and I thought maybe it’s good the U.S. scored.

This pressure continued for the first five minutes of the third period but then the U.S. began dominating.  I was just watching the clock, wondering why hockey teams use such a strategy to protect a lead, wishing it would reach the twenty minute mark and worrying because Luongo wasn’t looking sure-handed.

Then with 24.4 seconds to go Zach Parise scored and I was deflated.  I was thinking “Now I won’t be able to go to church.” (The service had already started.)  I was also thinking please don’t let it go to a shootout, I just hate the concept of anyone winning that way.

I thought overtime was kind of gimmicky, 4 on 4.  I was hoping that would be in Canada’s favor but the U.S. was playing well.  Sidney Crosby rushed in and tried to break through two defensemen but got stopped.  I remember thinking how Sidney hadn’t really done anything in the last two games, not judging him for it, just observing.  Then he got that break and shot it past Ryan Miller.  I couldn’t believe it, I thought it was impossible to score on Ryan Miller unless he can’t see it.  But I thought how appropriate that the symbol of Canadian hockey should score the winning goal.

I was screaming and jumping up and down until I became hoarse.  No one was home except Victoria upstairs playing Dora on the computer.

Now I am debating whether to go buy the Canadian Olympic hockey jersey.  Would it be too brazen wearing it here in the U.S.?  Whose name should be on it?  Sidney Crosby?  Joe Thornton (San Jose Shark)?  Alan “Goliath” Kwok?  Vincent “Ping Pong” Wong?  Are there any Christians on the team?

One cute family note.  Isaac likes to know who to root for.  When I was watching the first Canada vs. U.S.A. game he asked if I am rooting for the red team or the blue team.  I said the red team so he started cheering for the red team.  Then he realized the blue team had the U.S.A. flag so he started cheering for U.S.A.  Dylan said he’ll keep cheering for the red team.  Then they asked Ji Seon who she is rooting for and she said she doesn’t really care who wins but knows that I really care so she will root for Canada too.   I actually want them to root for the U.S.A., it’s their country and it should be mine but hockey is Canada’s game.

You can see the video highlights of Canada’s win here.

Tags: olympics
Categories: Hockey
6 Comments »

One family that we are good friends with, especially because our children get along so well, told us about an offer to stay at a luxury resort in Tahoe for only $140 for three nights.  This offer actually came through another good friend who has a timeshare at this resort.  The only catch is you have to listen to a 90 minute presentation about purchasing a Diamond Resorts timeshare.

Now I am pretty frugal but I never take these offers because I so dislike the hard sell.  But in this case I thought it would be a good idea because we get to spend time with this family, we wanted to go to Tahoe this winter and the price was good.

Two days before we were about to go our friends had to cancel because of a family emergency.  The trip was not nearly as appealing anymore but we had already paid and it was too late for us to cancel.

We arrived at the resort Wednesday evening and I started becoming unimpressed.  The concierges were not very helpful, check-in took an inordinate amount of time, they charge $7 a day for slow WiFi internet access and there is almost no parking so you have to valet.  On the other hand the suite, a one bedroom, is quite nice and it’s not even in the renovated wing.

Our presentation was scheduled for today, Thursday, at 11:30 AM.  Because it was in the middle of the day we asked if we could reschedule.  They said we could not.  We then asked what we should do with our kids and they said kids are welcome at the presentation.

11:30 AM we arrive for the presentation and the presenter suggests we put our children in the child care center free of charge.  After doing that and giving us a tour we sit down at a table while music blares over the speakers.  Our presenter notes that it’s 11:45 AM and that we should expect that the presentation will end at 1:15 PM.  I found that a little strange since she had just led us on a tour and we were told kids were welcome but now we were being penalized 15 minutes for bringing them.  But I did not complain.

Our presenter starts off by saying this is not a hard sell, it’s a soft sell.  Of course we don’t buy that because if it’s not a hard sell then why is she presenting just to us instead of to a room full of people so we can inconspicuously leave once it’s done?

She then begins to ask us many questions to get a sense of what kind of vacationers we are.  Then she starts talking about how expensive hotels are and how you are stuck in a small room instead of a nice one bedroom or two bedroom.

The presenter tries, as I imagine a good saleswoman would, to try to use whatever we say as selling points.  When I said once that vacations can be stressful because of small children she kept pointing out how less stressful being in a one or two bedroom would be.  When we said how family is important to us she talked about how vacations are so important for family time.  She even talked about the 50% divorce rate and how we should vacation so we don’t divorce!

The hard sell continues.  We see a video where people give testimonials about how wonderful Diamond Resorts is, a home away from home, relaxing, “destressing”, best service in the world, something you can pass on to your children.

During this whole time she refuses to tell us just how much a timeshare will be.  She takes us on a tour of the renovated suites.  She then has us enter into a computer program how much we spend on hotels, how often we vacation, what we expect is the rate of inflation, how many years we plan on vacationing.  I enter in $125/night, 10 days a year, 3% inflation, 25 years and get a nice output of about $50,000.

Now the presenter finally tells how much the timeshare will cost.  For 4000 points a year the cost is $24,000 plus $840 a year in HOA fees.  Apparently that’s a fantastic deal, at least according to her.  We can pay it all or for about $4000 down we can pay the rest with interest at 22% a year.  I was amazed they could offer a 22% interest rate with a straight face.

Also the presenter offered us all these first time visit perks which I did not really see as being that valuable except for of course the waiving of the $3000 membership fee which she never mentioned before.

We politely decline.  The presenter acts flabbergasted.  At this point the presentation has gone on for 150 minutes, 60 minutes over the amount of time they said they would.

The hard sell continues.  The manager comes over, asks a few questions, asks us to sign a few things.  Then he says he has to go do some other stuff.  When he returns he offers 3500 points a year for $10,000, an owner’s only offer.  I am not sure why 500 points costs $14,000 more but after a little bit of hesitation we decline again.

After the manager leaves the presenter then says she will give us 7 days in a two bedroom suite for free if we take the offer for 3500 points.  We again decline.  At this point I probably said for the fifth time we just want to go back to pick up our kids.

The hard sell continues further.  Our presenter says she needs to get some more things signed.  Then this elderly lady, who had been sitting in the corner the whole time, pops up and says she can sign us off.  She comes over and asks more questions.  She asks why we won’t buy it.  We say we don’t like to make quick decisions.  She replies that she buys whenever she sees a good deal and that she only regrets not having bought more things in life.  I am now annoyed with her too.

The lady then offers to let us decide for the next 12 or 18 months.  The catch is we have to buy a vacation package.  We again decline.

Now they finally take us over to where we are supposed to get our two free lift tickets and a $25 Visa card.  Of course though things don’t work out.  The $25 Visa card is not given to us because they say we are not supposed to get it since we got the lift tickets instead of the dinner and dance show.  Though the reasoning might be legitimate I just found it amazing that a company that is asking you to spend between $10,000 and $24,000 would nickel and dime you for $25.

It is now 2:30 PM when the presentation is finally over, twice as long as they said it would be.

I hate the hard sell.

Tags: diamond resorts,tahoe
Categories: Consumer
5 Comments »

At the encouragement of my brother-in-law I started shooting all my photos in RAW on my Nikon D80.  Unfortunately this meant that each photo I shot was larger than 10 MB.  My MacBook has only an 120 GB hard drive so it didn’t take long to realize I was going to run out of hard drive space.

The day of reckoning soon arrived when I noticed after my latest download of photos that Lightroom began to be noticeably slower.  This is either because Lightroom could not handle the added number of photos or because it needed more disk space.  I guessed it was the latter and this article seems to verify this.

I consulted my two experts in the hard drive field and was conviced not to buy Seagate which I had always thought was the best.  I apologize if I recommended Seagate to any of you.  The reviews on sites like Amazon and Newegg confirmed that Seagate is not as reliable.  Western Digital was recommended to me because they tend to be more conservative by using proven technology and not pushing the performance envelope.  The online reviews seemed to confirm that Western Digital was the way to go.

After more deliberation I ended up purchasing the Western Digital 320 GB Scorpio Black SATA 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Notebook Hard Drive WD3200BEKT.  I don’t know when Amazon began selling hard drives but I think Newegg, TigerDirect and others are in trouble because Amazon matches their best prices and they give free shipping so it’s a no brainer.

Unfortunately during my deliberation the price had gone up from $70 on Black Friday to $76 when I purchased it.  And now it’s $82 which is $1 less than the list price.  I am not sure what is going on but hard drive prices in general seem to be going up.

Anyway the hard drive arrived on my birthday and I could not wait to install it.  I started following the excellent instructions at iFixit for installing a MacBook Core 2 Duo Hard Drive Replacement and was almost done when I realized on the second last step I needed a T8 Torx screwdriver.  Sadly I undid everything and sent an email to my hardware hacker friend for help.

The next day hardware hacker came through with not just a screwdriver but a screwdriver set!  Last night I resumed my project and replaced my old hard drive, a Fujitsu MHY2120BH 120GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5″ SATA 1.5Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive, with the new one.

Before removing my old hard drive I did a Time Machine backup and thought it would be a simple matter of restoring the backup to the new hard drive.  Unfortunately like another birthday boy it did not go as smoothly as I hoped.  According to Apple’s Mac OS X 10.5 Recovering your entire system document when I booted from the Mac OS X Install Disk I should have seen a Restore System from Backup option.  However it was not there!

I did what the other birthday boy suggested and installed Mac OS X on the new hard drive.  When it was done and it rebooted I realized it had installed Tiger instead of Leopard.

I then put in the Mac OS X Leopard CPU Drop-in DVD for upgrading from Tiger to Leopard.  I double-clicked on the Install Mac OS X icon and when it rebooted I was able to restore my system from my Time Machine backup.

In retrospect I wish I had purchased a USB SATA hard drive enclosure and used SuperDuper! to clone the old hard drive like iFixit instructs.  That would have saved me a lot of time!

Now I have 320 GB to play with.  That should last me hopefully one to two more years unless I get into video.

Update: Lightroom is still slow.

Tags: hard drive,mac os x leopard,mac os x tiger,time machine
Categories: Mac
2 Comments »

I first mentioned The Better World Shopping Guide in my first Not For Sale study notes. It is “the only comprehensive guide for socially and environmentally responsible consumers.”  Their guide is based on research from these sources.

A few weeks ago I borrowed this guide from the library and have enjoyed perusing it.  You can also see the rankings online or on your iPhone.

The guide ranks companies from A to F.  They are ranked based on their record on the environment, human rights, community involvement, animal protection, corporate crime, discrimination, employee treatment, philanthropy.

Here are some highlights from the guide.

Nestle

• Baby formula human rights boycott
• “Most Irresponsible” corporation award
• Involved in child slavery lawsuit
• Aggressive takeovers of family farms

Altria (Kraft, Libby’s, Nabisco, Planters, Post)

• MM’s “Worst Corporation” list for 5 years
• Currently target of 2 major boycotts
• Greenwash Award for public deception
• Named global climate change laggard

M&Ms (M&M/Mars)

• On MM’s “10 Worst Corporations” list
• Suppliers use child slave labor
• Target of fair trade campaign

I wrote a letter to the author Dr. Jones protesting American Apparel’s A+ rating because of their pornographic ads and the sexual harassment lawsuits against its CEO, Dov Charney.

Tags: not for sale,slavery,the better world shopping guide
Categories: Consumer
2 Comments »

My pastor suggested I read The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell to help me learn about how I can create movements.  Malcolm Gladwell also wrote Outliers: The Story of Success.

Gladwell’s basic premise is that movements or epidemics, like physical plagues, happen because of the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context.

The Law of the Few says certain people play key roles, that these few people are responsible for the epidemic.

The Law of the Few … says that one critical factor in epidemics is the nature of the messenger.  A pair of shoes or a warning or an infection or a new movie can become highly contagious and tip simply by being associated with a  particular kind of person.

AIDS was brought to North America by a Canadian airline steward who slept with hundreds of women, playing the role of the infector and spreader.

Paul Revere started a movement, the beginning of the U.S. revolution, with his famous ride.  What is interesting is that someone else made a similar ride and no one reacted.  That was because Paul Revere knew so many people and had so many connections.  He was a connector.  Connectors are comfortable with having many “weak friendships” or acquaintances.  In some ways these weak friendships are very powerful because those are the ones that reach out of your circle and connect you to opportunities and other people.

A movement also requires mavens, people who gather enormous amounts of data about certain topics.  But mavens aren’t just a large repository of information, mavens enjoy helping and educating others.  They want to pass on their information.

And finally there are salesmen which are pretty self-explanatory.  Salesmen persuade and not just through words but through body language and expressions.  For example Peter Jennings, through his expressions, somehow convinced his viewers to vote for Reagan.  ABC News viewers voted overwhelmingly for Reagan even though ABC News itself was rated as the most anti-Republican in terms of its content.  Peter Jennings denied all of this.

I think pastors are salesmen, they sell Jesus.  Eugene Cho is both a salesman and a connector, he has had over a million views on his blog and his One Day’s Wages Facebook fan page has already almost a million fans.

The Stickiness Factor is simply making your message stick.  Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues were case studies.  I prefer Blue’s Clues.

What also is involved in a movement is context.  People are incredibly swayed by context.  An infamous example was the murder of a woman in New York city that was witnessed by tens of people.  No one moved because they assumed someone else was helping.  The context froze them.  However if they had been say somewhere where only one person was a witness and that person thought no one could help, he more likely would have helped.

I am reminded of two strange movements that happened at my old church.  One was the movement for younger men to marry older women.  It started with a couple of incidents and people found it intriguing.  But after awhile it became the norm and I have never seen something like that happen again.  I think the context really affected people.

Another example was how everyone at my church quickly got on Xanga and just as quickly everyone got off.  I understood somewhat why it happened quickly but never understood why it happened so quickly in the other.

A more famous example was the incredible decline in crime that happened in New York City simply by changing the context the people were in, i.e. no broken windows, no small crime, no graffiti on subways, etc.

I am writing this review from memory and I hope I didn’t completely mess up what Gladwell was saying.  My lesson learned is that I am a maven gathering a lot of data about North Korean human rights and I need to find connectors and salesmen to get the word out.

Tags: book review
Categories: Society
6 Comments »