Random Bits

Just like a girl. I tell my 3-year-old daughter to grab a toy to keep herself entertained at the store we’re going to. As we’re putting on our shoes she comes racing back from the playroom with her makeup compact.

Apparently around 10 or 10:30am there was a call put out for all seniors to get in their cars and head for the highways. I ran an errand this morning and on the way home got stuck repeatedly behind some bad driver doing anywhere from 5-15mph under the speed limit. While 5mph might not seem like much, realize that it’s mid-morning, the freeway is clear of heavy traffic, and most motorists are doing 5-10mph over the speed limit.

When I finally managed to catch a break and was able to cut over into the next lane to pass (waiting rather impatiently while the rest of traffic blew past me doing 70+) inevitably it was an elderly driver I glared at. This includes the lady who refused to accelerate past 40mph all the way up the freeway on-ramp; despite the fact that the on-ramp was completely straight and went for at least 150 meters. She’s still doing 40 for all I know, as when I finally swerved over a lane and joined traffic doing 65 she was still doing 40.

As a colleague put it… “wow”:

Palin on Foreign Policy

I have some Canadian pennies in my pocket… and hey! my neighbors are expat Brits… and they sometimes walk down the street, and in order to do that, where do they walk? Right past my house – so I must have foreign policy experience!!

Consider me a write-in!

A light earthquake occurred at 9:00:15 PM (PDT) on Friday, September 5, 2008.
The magnitude 4.0 event occurred 3 km (2 miles) ENE of Alamo, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 16 km (10 miles).

This one made the house shake for several long seconds.

I didn’t think the bearded lady existed outside the old time circus/carny shows, and then only for the shock- errrrr… “entertainment” value they provided. Maybe that’s what this person was going for. Yesterday, riding home on BART, I saw my very first, real-life bearded lady. Mind you it wasn’t a full-on beard or anything, but she definitely had a thin mustache and a very hairy chin… goatee-style. Oh yeah, and the sideburns were a little out of control too.

I couldn’t help wondering if this were actually just a very effeminate man, I mean, this person was wearing a blouse, horn-rimmed glasses, hair up in twin “buns” at the back of her head, and fingernail polish, but that still wasn’t proof enough. The clincher, however, was when they off-boarded in Oakland and the breasts made it obvious this was a woman.

A moderate earthquake occurred at 8:04:54 PM (PDT) on Tuesday, October 30, 2007.
The magnitude 5.6 event occurred 8 km (5 miles) NNE of Alum Rock, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 9 km ( 6 miles).

It’s not much yet, but I wanted a place to dump some vacation (and other) pics for friends and family to see. Lori wants to make use of a Snapfish or Wal-mart type site so that people can order their own copies, but for now at least you can come see ‘em online.

Like I said, it’s not much yet, but you can view our photos here. Each album is different. If you have problems viewing, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Josh started kindergarten this year, and Aeryn’s in a pre-school program. We’ve already done the back-to-school night thing, signed up for volunteer activities, and Lori’s attended her first PTA meeting… good GOD what’s happened to us?!!!!

Tonight Josh and I are running back to his school around 7:30pm as a local group of amateur astronomers are setting up on the school’s basketball courts and have invited kids and their parents. I’ve been drooling over telescopes for a few years now… considering buying one with the money I’ll make off my most recent side job, but I know Lori would kill me if I dropped $1K on a telescope and gear.

Work’s been good… a little hectic but shouldn’t really complain. I’m still doing some stuff on the side as well so it keeps me busy.

My mom and sister are coming for a visit in October… my sister will only stay a week but mom’s staying her usual month. They’ll both be here for Halloween and mom will be here for Thanksgiving as well. Can’t remember if she’ll be here for part of Hanukkah as well, as it begins early this year.

I’m already gearing up for, and excited about, Halloween. This year I finally got off my butt and after saying I wanted to for 3 years now, finally built a fog chiller. If all goes as planned (i.e. Halloween night isn’t too chilly already) my fog should hug the ground rather than fill the air. I’ll have my graveyard set up and it should make for a great effect. The past couple of years it’s been a general air-filling kind of fog floating through the graveyard. I’m also considering making a fake wrought-iron fence to keep kids on the path to the front door – both for effect and to keep anyone from wandering into the yard to “investigate” the decorations. It’s as simple as cutting some PVC and putting it through some 2×1 (I think) and painting it all black. Next year maybe a toe-pincher coffin or two. Lori’s gonna kill me. We already have about 6 or 7 boxes worth of Halloween stuff – we’ve run out of room to store it all, and here I am adding to it!

Anywho… yeah, I still geek about Halloween, but other than that Life’s been the same. Aeryn’s getting adjusted and has made HUGE progress since bringing her home. She’s walking – ok, running! – hasn’t really started talking yet (mama, dada, that sort of thing) and we joke that by the time the state appointed therapists get around to us (we qualified for help based on the fact that she’s developmentally delayed from the orphanage) she will be up to speed and they’ll question why we need help!

A minor earthquake occurred at 4:05:35 PM (PDT) on Tuesday, August 28, 2007.
The magnitude 3.0 event occurred 3 km (2 miles) ESE of Berkeley, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 8 km ( 5 miles).

What’re the odds? Wait, let me back up. So our flight from the U.S. to New York (to Moscow) was at o’ dark early and thus the shuttle we’d scheduled was for half past “what the @&#^$% am I doing up at this hour?” Oddly enough I just happened to be outside in the side yard when I saw headlights. Now no one else sane would be up driving at this hour so I instinctively knew it had to be out shuttle. Except he slowly drove past our house. I ran after him but to no avail.. he obviously wasn’t looking in his rearview mirror. I run back inside to tell Lori to call the service and get him back ASAP and head back outside to find not one, but TWO shuttles have found their way to our house. One departs and I never did ask how we ended up with two. So…

What’re the odds? As we’re all telling the driver what airlines we need or something we detect a Russian… Slavic… accent on the woman in front of us. 3am, heading to the airport to go to Russia and we bump into a Ukrainian lady (our age) heading back to Kiev on business! We spent the 45 min drive chatting about all things Russian/Ukrainian. Very nice lady… husband and child and they live in the area. Obviously life’s a little hectic right now but we exchanged phone numbers and email addresses in hopes of getting together after Life settles down.

The next ohhhh… 16 hours or so are spent on planes. From Oakland to New York (where we spend a few hours) and then on to Moscow. It was a bit disheartening to fly PAST Kaliningrad, knowing the day after we arrive in Moscow we fly BACK 2 or 3 hours to Kaliningrad. We again question the wisdom of flying past our destination but this is what the adoption agency has counseled. The first of several misguided suggestions we’re due to discover.

Don’t remember much more… lots of (attempted) sleeping, book reading, and movie/tv watching. We landed in Moscow and were fully prepared to spend a few hours getting through security. We surprised our coordinator when we breezed through in 10 minutes. Luckily she was there waiting for us but our poor driver who’d assumed he had lots of time had to throw away his fresh cup of coffee to come get us. Foreshadowance… this wouldn’t be his last time doing so.

We headed into town and found out our hotel was just a mile or two from Red Square. We had to drive PAST the hotel and almost all the way to Red Square to turn around since they have specially designated places you can do U-turns. Convincing our coordinator Natasha that the 16 hours of flying hadn’t wiped us out, she took us sightseeing down to Red Square. We got to see the walls of the Kremlin, Lenin’s Tomb (from the outside) and St. Basil’s cathedral – again, from the outside. Don’t worry, later on in our trip we’d venture inside the Krelim’s walls. We also stopped in a few shops and a grocery store that was AMAZING in its beauty.

I’ll probably add more to this post as I remember it. I’ll try to insert postings between this one and the next in order to have a post a day, covering each day of our trip. So keep coming back for updates!!

I was recently Googling for some free Coke rewards codes, when I stumbled across this blog, referencing this blog, referencing Ms. Havey’s site. Although all the postings noted are several months old, I felt a strong need to respond to the “woe is me, I’m just a victim” attitude growing more prevelant in our litigious society.

Below is the email I dashed off to Ms. Havey and those who responded to her posting. I sincerely hope to hear back from her and will update here if it happens.

Dear Ms. Havey –

I recently stumbled across a reprint of a blog posting that referenced your efforts against Coca Cola’s current rewards campaign.

While at first blush I couldn’t agree more with the frustration you and others express at the sheer number of sodas one must redeem in order to “win“, I think you and your supporters are being very narrow minded. Don’t get me wrong, I think redeeming several hundred, or even a thousand plus points, for some small trinket, while the “really good” prizes cost ridiculous amounts is reprehensible. However, you and others have failed to consider the following:

1) No one said you HAD to win that walk-on role in a television series. If every grand prize were attainable by every person interested we’d have a lot of grand prize winners and not many runners-up, now wouldn’t we? Personally, I’m drinking the same number of sodas as I normally would and entering the codes. When the end of the contest looms, I’ll happily redeem my points for whatever’s in my range. Note the lack of greed. Note the lack of victimization. Note the accountability and responsibility for my own actions.

2) You assumed a time limit on the quantities to be consumed. While all contests eventually end, no one said you had to imbibe the quantities you describe within a year. Maybe this contest will run for 2, 3… even 5 years. You just have to take your chances and drink responsibly. Which takes me to my next point.

3) I’m sick and tired of people blaming the food industry for the state(s) we find ourselves in. No one is forcing you to drink that much soda, so don’t whine if you can’t get the 26,000 point Trip to Vegas and don’t want to find a way to collect that many points. No one makes you stop at McDonalds every day, but we’re blaming them for making the public obese. Now it’s Coke for offering us the hood from Kyle Petty’s car and somehow it’s their fault we’re guzzling soda at irresponsible rates. Remind me again… who held that gun to your head and told you you had to win that prize? How about instead of playing victim, we take responsibility for our own damned actions for once!

4) As I suggested in point 3, there are many ways to collect that many points. The complaint that you can’t pool points is a ridiculous one. Yes, it’s true, you cannot pool points ONCE YOU’VE REDEEMED THEM. But who’s stopping you from collecting codes from your friends, neighbors, dog-walker, or off the Internet. How do you think I found your site? After finding, and entering, codes that netted me 200 points I stumbled across a blog referencing another blog referencing your site… while searching the Internet for free codes. Huh.

What about those in the services industry that find themselves buying in bulk? I’ll bet their main problem is not consuming the soda (after all, they turn around and sell it to, or pour it for, us. Their main problem is the 10-codes-redeemed-a-day rule. That means only 100 points max a day. Roughly 3,000 a month. 18,000 in 6 months. I can’t believe there are no caterers or others in similar industries out there that don’t have an enormous amount of points.

Coca Cola themselves frequently publishes codes worth anywhere from 3 to 100 points via other advertising outlets (i.e. magazines). I’ve personally redeemed several hundred points worth of free codes. And I ran across someone saying they’d soon be offering codes for 750 – 1000 points.

While I agree with your basic premise I wholeheartedly disagree with your stance that the prizes are unattainable unless you’re willing to hurt or kill yourself AND that it’s Coca Cola’s fault if we do and responsibility to see that we don’t. It’s time that we as a nation grew up and acted like adults. Adults with control over our own actions. Stop blaming everyone else and take responsibility.

I’ll end with the following quote from your site:

“the POINTS for the TOP PRIZES are so excessive that if someone actually DRANK the Coke that they’re buying to win those prizes, then they would die (FACT)”.

Who said you had to drink the Coke Ms Havey? Who?

Sincerely,

Jeff Roseman

http://blogs.ca-rosemans.com/jeff

Julia and I both gave eulogies. Hers was serious and heart-tugging, mine was modeled after my dad’s sense of humor and playful. She went first and it was the perfect yin-yang situation. I think he would have been pleased.

I don’t have Julia’s… and to be honest, it’s hers. It’s personal. It’s her decision if she would want to share it with the world as I am here with mine. Of course you’d need to know some personal history of the family as some of this comes across as inside jokes.

“Thirty eight years ago I came crying and screaming into this world, and as far as I know my father didn’t demand that the doctors “put it back“! And this despite being teased by the doctor that he was the proud father of yet ANOTHER girl, his third. So I have Dad’s good humor and open heart to thank for being here today, speaking to you about the man we’ve come to pay our respects to. Having been brought to my father in a pink blanket, and then further being subjected to a life with 2 older sisters (and mom) I gained a healthy respect for women (just smile and nod honey, we can talk about this later).

But it was apparent that we guys had to stick together. My dad taught me how to fish, he encouraged and nurtured my love for computers, rocks and minerals, fossils, stargazing… He even taught me how to check the insides of my eyelids for light leaks – evidently by the way, the best time is while reclined in a LA-Z Boy in front of the t.v. And although I eventually surpassed his expertise at the computer and frequently found more fossils than him (due of course to my younger, sharper eyes) he still kept me around… mainly as tech support whenever he installed something he shouldn’t have and his computer was acting funny. For some reason the invitations to go rock or fossil hunting dried up… not quite sure why…

Looking out over everyone gathered here today, I’ve come to understand, like my father before me:

…the responsibilities and blessings of being a father,
…the ball and chain -UHHHH bonds, BONDS associated with being a husband,
…the aggravation AND pleasure of being a brother,
…the honor of being an uncle,
…the unconditional love given to a son,
…the privilege of being a nephew, a cousin or a friend,
…and maybe in another 15-20 years the joy of being a grandfather.

As I grow older and (hopefully) more mature, I find myself becoming my father more and more each day. Now while normally the prospect of turning into one’s parent is usually a horrifying one, I’m not completely freaked out. It’s actually a great comfort to realize I have a wealth of experience and wisdom to draw upon in raising my own son. The values he instilled in me shape the way I raise my family, the respect (wink and smile) I have for my wife, and the way I respond to and interact with people on a daily basis.

We’ll surely miss him, but as I told my son the other day – as long as we keep papa… grandpa… dad… Len… uncle Lenny… honey… in our heart, he’ll always be with us. Close your eyes and remember him any way you want, but always remember him.”

Leonard Roseman of Waldorf, Maryland died Friday, January 19, 2007 at his home. He was 77 years old.

Born August 28, 1929 in Bronx, New York, he was the son of the late Rose Lefkowitz and Samuel Roseman. He served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean Conflict from 1948 to 1952 when he was Honorably Discharged at the rank of Staff Sergeant. While in the service, Mr. Roseman received the Berlin Airlift Device, the Humane Action Medal and the Good Conduct Medal. He attended college and was conferred a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration. He worked for the Department of the Navy as a Systems Analyst before retiring. He enjoyed painting, rock and mineral collecting and photography.

He is survived by his wife Jane Roseman; daughters Rachel Drake and Julia Betz; son Jeffrey Roseman; sister Shirley Jadlowe; brother Bernie Roseman; grandchildren Jennifer Drake, Nikki Drake, Ryan Drake, Zachary Betz, Justin Betz, Joshua Roseman and one granddaughter on the way; also survived by numerous cousins, other relatives and friends.

There’s this little coffee shop about a block from my office. It’s pretty small in that they serve various coffees, have about 3 or 4 dozen bagels, a few dozen donuts, croissants (with ham, egg, and cheese), cookies, and slices of cakes and pies (which I’ve never seen sold). They also do a pretty good lunch business, but honestly, they’re just this little coffee shop.

Now this little coffee shop, like I said, is about a block my office. My office, is deep in the advertising district, which means there’s not a whole lot close by. If you want a restaurant you have to walk several blocks. If you want shopping, it’s several more. We’d never be confused with being in the heart of the financial district; surrounded by shops and stores and restaurants *OH MY!*

Anyway, babbling on and haven’t even gotten to the point of this posting yet!

What possesses people to come in and clean this place out in the morning, so they can supply their morning meeting with pastries and bagels?! For one thing, this isn’t Noah’s, an establishment best known for bagels *hint*. The name of this place alludes to coffee: The Roastery. Get it? C-o-f-f-e-e   s-h-o-p. For another, this place is so far off the beaten path that when people clean them out of bagels and donuts first thing in the morning, then the rest of the people who work in this area are S.O.L.

How hard is it for you to get your @#*$&^ up a little earlier so you can spend the extra time going to a place that specializes in bagels in quantity?! I’m sure The Roastery doesn’t care. A sale is a sale. But the rest of us do. You know, the ones in line behind you waiting 5 minutes while you occupy the only person behind the counter so you can get all 7 plain bagels, the 3 onion bagels, all the remaining sesame, 5 “everything”, all the egg bagels, and a random assortment of a dozen donuts. We’re hoping you’ll actually leave 1 or 2 for us, thanks.

Grumpy #1: I own a portable DVD player which helps pass the time during commute. I’ve been a little behind in getting my kind of movies as we’ve had a little backlog of us kind of movies. Yesterday 2 of my kind showed in the mail so I made sure to charge up the player last night. I was all set to watch one on the way in this morning, however as I arrived at BART parking I started thinking about whether or not I’d get a seat, blah blah blah when suddenly an alarm goes off in the back of my head and I remember I’d taken my headphones out of my bag because they’d been badly tangled. And guess what? I’d never put them back. No movie for me this morning.

Grumpy #2: My stomach has been talking to me all morning… kind of a low-pitched grumbling under its breath kinda thing. I planned to sit down to breakfast with Josh but time got away from me. As I reached street level here in SF it’d grown to a full-fledged “feed me Seymour“, take-no-prisoners kinda thing. I decided what better way to put the DVD mishap behind me than breakfast at my usual spot; a place I’ve been going to for so long now, and with such regularity, that when I walk in they smile, nod, and make my breakfast without even asking what I want. Except this morning as I neared my place, 5 construction-type dudes poured out of their pickup truck 1/2 block ahead of me. No no no no nonononononono DAMN! Yes, they were heading for my breakfast place. Now on a “good day” when I’m the only one in line, or the first one in line, breakfast can take between 5-10 mins to make. It’s a small place you see, and there’s only enough room and equipment to make breakfast for 1, maybe 2 people at a time. When I neared the doorway I saw the 5 clustered around staring up at the list of breakfast possibilities and knew it’d be at least 20+ mins before I’d walk back out with breakfast in hand. With a giant disappointed *sigh* I kept walking.

Grumpy #3: Resigning myself to not getting the best breakfast this side of the bridge (Millie’s wins on the other side) I figure I can at least stop at the little mom & pop shop a block away from my work and pick up my morning caffeine (Diet Coke) and a ham, egg, and cheese croissant. A far cry from the minced ham, egg, and cheese scramble, breakfast potatoes, sourdough toast, a side of sausage (links), and a large side of grits. Damn I’m hungry. Anyway… I approach the entrance and swing in, only to practically run into the end of the line! It extended from the counter almost to the door! This place is a little faster than my breakfast place, but only marginally. A quick estimate puts it at anywhere between 10-15 people in line – it’ll take me nearly 10 mins just to pick up my sub-par breakfast. With an audible curse I press on to the office and head straight to my blog.

UGH!