We decided (I really mean Michelle decided) to clean up our closets today, so we purged (I really mean Michelle purged) a metric shitload of stuff that we haven't used in years, was broken, or just don't need anymore. I went through the disaster area called my den and cleaned out a big garbage bag full of stuff plus untold bags of recycling. I haven't really even tackled a big box of old cables and power supplies yet either.

I love gear and goodies as you all know, but I'm a bit appalled by the amount of garbage we generate as a family of four. Between the packaging and discarded possessions, we take out a huge garbage can each week plus we do a biannual run to the dump for bigger stuff.

What's more, I don't think we generate as much garbage as many households since we cook a lot from scratch (which means less packaging), we recycle heavily (we have mixed recycling bins around here so we can dump everything into a single bin -- very nice), we compost, we buy generally high quality items (so we break stuff less often), and we donate good quality used items.

In any case I have a renewed enthusiasm for the wise (if overused) advice of "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". No reason to leave an unnecessarily messed up world for the boys.

At Microsoft, we always talk about how someone "adds value". The Holy Grail for all employees is to find new ways to add even more value to our products and services and ultimately our users and shareholders. I've spent fifteen years trying to figure it out for myself and lead others to add more value.

Turns out I should have just gone to Hong Kong. There's a machine there where you can add value just by putting money into it. Damn, this would have saved me a lot of time and energy.

(Actually, the machine lets you put more money on a subway stored value card, but the name and the image were too juicy to resist.)

We just got back from ten days in Florida. We first visited Michelle's parents in St. Petersburg Beach and then went onto Walt Disney World.

I'm a little beat right now, so that's all for now. I'll blog more about the trip and such later.

I got my 15th college reunion class book in the mail today. This tome consists of pages with photos and stories of our lives submitted by me and many of my classmates from Stanford.

Mostly, the stories go like this:

• Graduated from Stanford.
• Went into high tech/became an attorney/became a doctor.
• Met the love of their life and had children.
• Can't wait to see everyone at reunion this fall.

It's interesting to see who looked better during college and who looks better now. Not sure which camp I fall into, but Lord, the photo I sent reproduced terribly. I look thirty pounds heavier in the photo (really, I'm not that fat.)

I thought I'd been keeping up pretty well with the people who were important or interesting to me, but I was wrong. The book reminded me of a lot of fun times during college with lots of folks I've lost touch with. Fortunately, most people included contact info, so I'll be saying hello to some old friends soon.

While I'm complaining, I thought I'd share another pet peeve. Several times a week, my ears are assaulted by people misusing fewer and less. This is even true of my well-educated colleagues with degrees from prestigious colleges.

As Merriam-Websters describes, fewer "applies to matters of number and modifies plural nouns."

Less "applies to matters of degree, value, or amount and modifies collective nouns, mass nouns, or nouns denoting an abstract whole."

That is, if you can count the thing in units, use fewer, otherwise use less. Examples: "Fewer items", "fewer days", "less work", "less happy".

I'm sure I make lots of usage mistakes (probably even in this post), but this mistake just bugs me. It's so common that even M-W mentions the increased usage. Bad, bad, bad.

(As an aside, I'm sad the Encarta Dictionary didn't have any usage info on this topic. I worked on v1 of the Dictionary and had hoped it would grow into something more.)

I sailed with my friend Adrienne on her San Juan 24, T-Bone, for another night of racing. This was back in Lake Washington (vs. the San Juan 24 Nationals we raced in Puget Sound.)

It was a reasonably nice night with good wind. While it's always fun to sail, this week was especially fun because I learned to sail foredeck. This is the position on the front of the boat; the foredeck person stands at the bow (the front of the boat) at the start to call the starting line, handles the head sail, and then sets and manages the spinnaker (the big downwind sail) and the spinnaker pole (a pole that pushes the spinnaker out).

It was definitely a learning experience. There are lots of lines up there. It's a little hard to visualize where they're all supposed to go and in what order when everything is on the deck. Once the pole and sail go up, tangles and overlaps can cause huge problems (I had to stop everything twice and untie/unclip things to fix overlaps -- very slow and bad). It's even harder because you actually have to think about the next move the boat will make and where lines need to be then (another mistake there). Still, I had a good coach and it was fun

This is a pretty busy job at times. The boat is often heeling pretty far when I'm up there. I typically need both hands to get the pole ready, etc. so I have to stay low to stay on the boat (important). As a result, my knees and shins are all banged up and cut from smashing on the deck and the little hardware that sticks up all over. At various times, my feet were also dragging through the water as I hung onto the boat on various tacks.

Despite the physical abuse I took and the fact we finished DFL (dead f*cking last ) in two of the three races (we did, however beat the #1 boat in the second race), I had a super great time and am excited to do it all again.

Happy Independence Day! (To my British friends, sorry about the loss of your colonies.) I love the 4th of July. I have lots of great 4th of July memories like watching fireworks from the Marin Headlands overlooking the Golden Gate bridge, watching the fireworks from a speedboat in Lake Washington, and seeing a different perspective while in Germany one year.

Today was no exception. Nice round of golf at Newcastle, friends over for a barbeque, and then watching the Bellevue fireworks with Andrew (7). Beautiful weather, for a change too. (Normally, the 5th of July is the nicest day in Seattle.)

However, every 4th of July, my strongest memory is of Trinket, our former sailboat. We took deliver of this brand new 1998 Tartan 3500 and had our first sail on July 4, 1998. We didn't know what we were doing; we wound up dodging Washington State Ferries all day, drifting along under sail. Still, it's one of the two happiest days of a boater's life (the other, of course, is the day you sell your boat, as I can attest.)

Andrew and I shared another memorable 4th on Trinket, watching the fireworks from Elliott Bay Marina. We sat on the boom, about four feet over the deck, so we could see better. Andrew, who was five at the time, fell asleep in my arms (while we were still perched on the boom) during the fireworks. Definitely a 4th I'll never forget.

I can't wait until next year...

As a fun thing to do on a slow day, I took a bunch of my team out yesterday to Bellevue Muni golf course to hit some balls and get a hot dog for lunch. Several of the team including me brought golf clubs to share with the others.

Everything was going well. Then, two of my guys came up to me with sheepish grins and asked, "the review model is closed, right?" (this is our annual performance review with scores). Then they showed me not one but two broken golf shafts, the heads sheared off at the tip of the shaft.

One guy had broken my Callaway seven wood, the head flying 50 yards onto the range (probably the farthest he managed to get anything down range.) Then the guy on the next mat with my Callaway three wood does exactly the same thing.

I've never broken a single golf club in my life, let alone two. These are nice guys who weren't doing anything nutty. Lightning just happened to strike twice.

This is God's way of saying I need new clubs...

...I'd be dead today.

I just got back from a week in China, visiting our colleagues located in Beijing. This was the first visit I've made in the summer. Damn warm (90F+).

I left Beijing on June 4, the 16th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. It struck me how much China has changed since then in some ways and not enough in others.

Certainly, there are few markets that are more vibrant or that really express capitalism to the same degree that China has adopted, and people are more free to pursue their choices than ever. In those ways, I'm very excited and optimistic about the future of China and the Chinese people.

On the other hand, there has been a renewed control over the media and continues to be limitation of public discourse. While I recognize there may be a desire to slowly evolve (vs. the explosive decompression seen in the former Soviet Union), there is a growing dichotomy between what people hear in the news vs. what the know to be true via their greater access to foreigners and foreign information sources. This can only increase tension and discontent in the current government. I only hope the situation resolves itself peacefully and soon.

Anyway, the food was great, and it's always inspiring to me to meet with my friends in China; they're incredibly talented and driven. They do great work for us and will do even more over time.

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. Michael (4) has been uncharacteristically good lately, so there hasn't been much to report on. I'll start waking him up earlier so he's crankier. That should kick things up a notch again...