Michelle and I searched for our first Googlewhack for a while tonight after dinner. We searched fruitlessly for a while, never getting closer than 73 hits until Michelle received an inspiration from the gods (probably Anubis): scaraboid deguerrotype. The result is a browser log on some getty.edu site -- not exactly exciting, but a Googlewhack nonetheless.

Can you find any?

Michelle and I plus Felicity (a friend from work) went to see Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure this evening at the Moore Theater. This is a very funny one man show about where googlewhacking lead Dave during a few month stretch a few years ago.

Googlewhacking is the game of trying to find two word searches in Google that return exactly one result. I have been unable to find a googlewhack in the few tries I've made since coming home from the show. I'll post whatever I find.

Anyway, if you get a chance, go see the show. It's a fun evening.

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My friend Chooky did a little analysis of the comparative value of different levels of education, taking the census data that shows the average incomes for different education levels and then calculating the NPV of those levels. I was happy to see (as the holder of a bachelor's degree), that the maximum NPV is at the bachelor's degree level.

Too bad Chooky stayed on to get his PhD. Sorry, dude, looks like I picked the right time to get out of school.

Monday night, my sailing friends Brian and Malcolm and I went to the Seattle Yacht Club to hear a talk from the Alinghi syndicate -- the winners of the last America's Cup and defenders in 2007 in Valencia, Spain.

The presenters were Ed Baird and Hamish Ross. They were entertaining and brought very different perspectives on the America's Cup. Ed is helmsman aboard Alinghi and Hamish is general counsel and historian. They brought a good mix of stunning video and photos plus great stories from their time sailing and especially in the last America's Cup. Ed, in particular, has amazing stories. For instance, he was the helmsman aboard Young America when they snapped the boat in two. That doesn't happen every day...

The main thing I took away is that these guys are playing a different game than I play when I race. Like the difference between Tiger Woods' golf game and mine. The considerations, strategy, and teamwork are well beyond anything I could have imagined. For instance, apparently, the AC boats aren't very maneuverable. To get the boats to do the amazing ballet turns at the start requires a huge amount of coordination of the whole crew to get the sails, trim tab, rudder, and other sail/mast adjustments moving perfectly to turn the boat quickly. We can just throw the rudder over to turn fast (although it does work better with some coordination from the sails...)

We started toying with the idea of going to Valencia for the next America's Cup. There's probably a .0000001% chance of that really happening given that we all have kids, but it's fun to dream. Since SYC is not putting a boat in this time (OneWorld raced for SYC in the last AC), I may be rooting for Alinghi. I'd normally root for an American team, but the American team will likely be BMW Oracle Racing, and I just can't support anything Larry Ellison does (despite my affection for BMW).

Anyway, great talk and a great event. I felt like I do after watching a Warren Miller film. I'm all pumped about sailing and AC now and can't wait to get on the water.

MS Paint is one of the most underappreciated applets in Windows -- until now. This amazing, random thread on the North American Subaru Impreza Owner's Club off-topic forum is full of MS Paint drawings of mistakes people have made. These range from things like getting shot with a potato cannon to getting a little hot tub action from the wife's sister to doing 120 in a school zone with a cop just over the hill.

The quality of the art varies widely, but they're almost all funny.

MS Paint something stupid you have done

My friend, Chooky, posted this list of unintentionally racy links. Pretty funny.

Today is my dad's birthday. When he was growing up, he thought the Veteran's Day parades were in honor of his birthday.

My dad is my hero. He was born in China during WWII, fled with his family when the Communists took over, and grew up in post-war Hong Kong as my grandparents re-established a life for the family. He came to a little town in Iowa (not a bastion of overseas Chinese even today, and even less so in 1960) as a fifteen-year old college student, knowing no one and having virtually nothing. He pulled himself up by his bootstraps and eventually graduated with two masters degrees, in physics and electrical engineering, sending money home to Hong Kong the whole while.

Through his hard work and natural talent he had a great career at 3M (whenever you look up at a power pole in the US, you're probably seeing the Quick-Term II or III that he designed), made a great life for his family, and put two of us through Stanford debt-free. He always had time to play with us and our friends (my high school friends still imitate the sounds my dad made playing soccer), always made time to help us with homework (although he's so good at math that he had a hard time understanding why I didn't get stuff), and is a good husband to my mom. He set a high bar for me as a father, husband, and employee. He set a high bar for me as a man.

Anyway, he and my mom are enjoying their retirement now in Las Vegas, playing golf, getting points in local casinos to redeem for free food and stuff, and spending time with friends. He's earned it.

For me, I think my dad was right: the Veteran's Day parades are for him. Happy birthday, old man!

My friend Lara found this crazy optical illusion. They're probably flashing evil subliminal ads like "Get Firefox" while you stare at the thing, but it's still cool.

Thanks, Lara.

I just finished voting and am a happy man. I love voting. It's my job and my right as a citizen in a democracy. Around the world, people are dreaming of voting, risking their lives to vote, and in some cases dying to vote (and staining their fingers purple for days!) In America many take this fundamental liberty for granted. Shame, shame, shame! Go vote!

(Besides, voting gives me clear conscience to complain about our government until the next election. As I see it, if you don't vote, you can't complain, so if you like complaining about gov't as much as I do, get off your butt and vote!)

Last night around 3:00am, I was coming home after an evening with friends. As I was driving, I noticed my car was pulling to the right a bit. "Damn," I thought, "I'll have to get that looked at." A few miles later the car started to vibrate and make more noise; I realized that my tire was going flat. I hoped I could get home, but as I pulled onto I-405 from 520, I knew it was a hopeless cause. I pulled off under the 12th Street overpass and stepped out to inspect the damage. The tire was shredded. No goop was going to fix this.

Fortunately, I had my AAA membership number and phone number in my wallet. I called them up, and the dude was out in thirty minutes, just enough time for me to watch the episode of Good Eats I had synched to my Smartphone. (Technology wins!) Dude wheeled out his industrial sized jack, unrolled the airhose for his tools, and had my spare tire on in about three minutes. It would have taken me thirty minutes of flipping through the owner's manual just to figure out how to get the cover off the hub with the special key BMW provides.

What's more amazing is that I'm not sure we even have a AAA membership anymore. Michelle wasn't sure, and they had our old, old address. Nevertheless, they bailed me out at 3:00am in the rain on the side of the freeway, no questions asked. If we're not members now, we'll definitely rejoin.

AAA rocks.