Grow the Company by Waiting for the Market to Turnaround

Well, here's another sure sign that I'm working for the wrong company. Rather than try to take market share from our competitors or come up with new products that users would get excited about, we're counting on the market/economy to turn around to drive the company's growth for the next year or two.

I don't know about you, but waiting for the pie to get bigger is not my idea of a successful corporate growth strategy. What makes our executives think that the economy will turn around and drive 20%+ growth next year? Seriously, I need to find out what they're smoking.

If I was running the company, I would never depend on the economy to be the only driver of the company's growth. Why place the company's future on something the company cannot control? How about trying to take market share from competitors? How about improving the current website by optimizing it (to improve conversion and click through rates)? Oh, right....that involves work and sound business fundamentals. Items that are non-existent at the company.

Sigh...I need a new job.

Worst Career Choice...EVER!

As it turns out, my situation at work got worse. I got thrown under the bus and have the tread marks on my back to show for it. A month ago I was told I had the smoothest running project of the 5 projects the company was undertaking in a massive website redesign initiative. Yesterday, I was told I wasn't doing my job and that I would be written up for it during mid-year reviews.

My reaction was WTF! You have got to be kidding me. The reason for the sudden turn? The Dev Director complained that I did not have all the business rules for a particular component thought through. Are you fucking kidding me? We're a fucking agile shop - we do this all the time. It's our fucking process...and he calls me out for this!

I've had it with this place. Accepting the offer to work here is hands down my worst career choice! I should have stuck with my previous job, even though we went through 4 rounds of layoffs in 3 months. I would have been happier there.

I have excellent references from all my previous employers. I know I didn't get stupid overnight nor did I forget how to be a good Product Manager. If you need a reminder of how bad my current company is run, just read this and this.

Maybe I should get myself this for Xmas:

Nighthawk Custom T3

Well, the day finally came. My 10-day waiting period is up and I was finally able to pick up the T3.

All is I can is "wow"! It is one of the finest pistols I have ever held. Everything just feels solid and tight. Racking the slide was a bit tight, but should get better once I've had a chance to run 500 rounds through it. The trigger is nice and smooth...very light. The Diamond Black finish looks terrific and from what I understand is the best finish that Nighthawk Custom offers.

Because I live in CA, Nighthawk Custom wasn't allowed to put the magwell on the T3. Instead, they included it in the package so that the owner can either install himself or have it installed by the gunsmith. Not sure yet if I'm going to install it, but will take my time making that decision. I'll be sure to send a quick email to Nighthawk and ask if there's anything in particular I should be aware of for installation. From the looks of it, it's basically punching the pin (out of the bottom of the main spring housing), install the magwell, and punch the pin back in. I'm hoping it's that simple.

A nice surprise I found in the Nighthawk paperwork was a magazine offer - 6 blued magazines or 4 stainless steel magazines for $100 plus shipping (roughly $109). That's too good of a deal to pass up and I'll be taking them up on their offer.

A1 Commercial...the Car, not the Steak Sauce

Living in Downtown Los Angeles can be interesting. When walking around the area, you run into all kinds of people - from your local area merchants to tourists to transients. One of the more interesting things you can run into are film shoots/production. With most of the major Hollywood studios nearby, a lot of television, major motion pictures and commercials get filmed in the area.

For example, the final battle in the first Transformers movie was shot in Downtown Los Angeles by 9th Street and Broadway. The new FlashFoward television show on ABC is based in Los Angeles. Although in episode 10 where the two agents traveled to Hong Kong was just shot in L.A.'s Chinatown...quite cheesy if you ask me.

Last night, one of the European car brands was shooting their latest commercial near where I live. It was an Audi (much to my delight) and it was the new Audi A1.

I couldn't get any up close pictures. The crew had the A1 in camouflage; then when they removed it, I couldn't get close enough to get a good shot.

I did however get some shots of them filming the commercial which are below. Not the best pics (since I only have a point and shoot camera), but hopefully you'll enjoy them.

The premise of the commercial is that when the A1 pulls out of the parking garage (pics 1 & 2), it gets pulled over by the police (pic 3). The A1 stops, but then makes a break for it by speeding away (pic 4). I hope Audi isn't trying to imply that Audi drivers are criminals! D'OH!

I can't wait to see the finished product. I hope this means that the Audi A1 is coming to the States, because there are reports that it may not come to the US market.

It's Good to be a Democrat

I follow a blog called the Big Picture and the author wrote a fab post today.

The money quote:

Obama has been more interested in sending out a pro-business signal to re-assure business interests and to court independent voters. I believe he has made a political calculation that he can hold his base of support even if he adopts a more center-left positioning because they have nowhere else to go. It’s not like they are going to vote for the Republicans. This has been an effective way to power for left-leaning mainstream parties for at least 15 years.

At this point in my life, I consider myself an Independent who votes for the person with the best ideas and can think critically. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of choices that fit this criteria when I go to vote. However, if you're running for public office, you have to believe you're better off running as a Democrat rather than a Republican.

If you're a Republican and you piss off your constituents, they'll stay home the next time you need their votes. If you're a Democrat and you piss off your constituents, they'll still vote for you the next time around because they don't want a Republican to win. The caveat is if you have another Dem running against you, then all bets are off....just ask Joe Lieberman.

ucla Has a Football Team?

If you're a Trojan, this is classic. If you're a bRuin, not so much.

Enjoy!



12/15/2009 Update: The one bRuin player I will call out is Brian Price. He is a beast and will be playing on Sundays in the near future.

Fight On!

Graduating to the Next Caliber - .45ACP

A while back I wrote that I was considering getting another gun. At one point, I was very close to buying a Walther PPK (actually, a Manurhin-made PPK). It didn't quite work out as other obligations came up. However, acquiring another handgun has been on my mind.

After much thought I decided to pass on getting the PPK. I wanted to go with a bigger caliber - either a .40cal or .45ACP. Then last month, I went to Greg Block's Intermediate Handgun class where half the class had 1911's in .45ACP. I asked a ton of questions during class and became convinced that .45ACP was the way to go. The main reason...check out the following:

The .45ACP is on the left and the 9mm is on the right. As my wife stated when I first showed her the .45ACP, "You can kill someone with that." Hopefully I won't ever have to use it, but if I did have to, I wanted something with a bit more stopping power.

The hard part of all of this is deciding what 1911 to get. There are many manufacturers of model 1911 handguns - Colt, Smith & Wesson, Kimber, Springfield Armory, Dan Wesson, etc. I wasn't interested in a full size Government model (5-inch barrel) as I have small hands and liked the length of my Walther P99 (approximately 4-inch barrel). I began searching for a Commander or Officer's model. I did a ton of research online and narrowed down my choices to a Nighthawk Custom T3, a Kimber Pro CDP II, and a Kimber Compact CDP II.

I read tons of posts about these 3 models - how the handgun operated, its accuracy and reliability, the type of customer service offered by the manufacturers, etc. At the end of the day, Nighthawk Custom won out. The T3 received an excellent online review at the M-1911 Forums and Nighthawk Custom's reputation for top notch customer service won me over.

The T3 isn't in my possession yet as I have to wait out California's 10-day waiting period. However, I will soon have it and cannot wait to post pictures. For a sneak peek of what I'll be getting, check out the following quick review I found on YouTube:

Disappointing USC Football Season Comes to an End

Sigh...the end of a very disappointing regular season came and went. I'm sure I'm not the only person who was not surprised by the Trojans' loss to Arizona.

I can't comment much other than that as personal obligations prevented me from attending the game. However, I do have a few comments to sum up the season:

• We now see why true freshmen QB's are typically asked to redshirt. They just aren't ready to play and perform at a consistent level for the entire season. This was what we saw with Matt Barkley....and in fact, I would say that he regressed over the course of the season as opposing teams got tape on what Barkley is capable of and schemed accordingly.
• The SC offense had no identity this year. You would think that with a true freshmen QB starting, the coaching staff would rely on the running game to take pressure off of Barkley. Unfortunately, the SC coaching staff had other ideas. At this point, I'm still wondering what those ideas were. It just didn't work as everything seemed to change/vary from game to game. What should have happened is that the coaches should have given Allen Bradford the ball and run it. And can we finally admit that Joe McKnight is NOT Reggie Bush?!?! Let's stop pretending.
• The SC defense was clearly in a rebuilding mode. Losing the entire starting linebacking corps from last season along with a starting defensive end WAS a major issue for this team. We just couldn't stop anyone when it mattered the most.
• While I did see some improvement from the SC special teams as the year progressed, it's still mediocre. We really need a better placekicker who can kick and make field goals beyond 40 yards. We needed to score this year and could not count on a sure 3 points from the field goal unit when the offense sputtered. The punting got better which is nice, but kickoff coverage still bite us every other time and kickoff/punt returns are inconsistent.
• Coach Carroll needs experienced coordinators. While coaching staff turnover is expected (especially when USC has had as much success as it had in the prior 7 seasons), USC is not the place for on-the-job training for inexperienced defensive and offensive coordinators. USC is big boy college football. We expect to contend for Pac-10 and the BCS Title....it's not the place for these coordinators to get their feet wet and learn on the job. Coach Carroll can't do everything and he needs to understand that.
• HEART...where was the "Always Compete" nature of this team? It too often looked like this team just thought it could show up and win. Even if we lose, I want the team to play hard...ALL the time! As we've seen, every game counts and letting up for even a single play can cost you the game and a chance at the BCS Title.
  

We now have approximately 3 weeks to prepare for the Emerald Bowl. Let's hope the team can psych itself up to play and win....and set the stage for next season.

The only silver lining from this year was that SC beat the Irish and the bRuins!

Fight On!

The Baked Pork Chop Rice Crown

For those of you who want the absolute best baked pork chop rice, there's only one place to visit - Fat Siu Lau in Macau, China!

Trust me when I say it is the best that I have ever had. It is the yardstick by which I measure all other baked pork chop rice. My first experience with Fat Siu Lau was in Nov 2006. It was on my honeymoon as my wife and I visited Hong Kong and decided to do a 1-day trip to Macau.

Fat Siu Lau has been around since 1903 and is known for many dishes: roasted pigeon, prawn bisque, and seafood rice amongst others. But when we visited, I only had pork chop rice on the brain and it did not disappoint.

Here's a picture from my 2006 visit.

And here are a few from my visit last month (Nov 2009).

Funny enough, if I was to give a rating for the last visit, it would only be 4.5 (whereas my first visit was a perfect 5.0). The reason per my 5 point grading system:

• Good amount of tomato taste in the sauce - 1 point
• The fried rice was flavorful - 1 point
• Pork chops were nicely fried and tasty - 1 point
  (Note: Even my wife, who does not like pork chops, said that she would order it after taking a single bite.)
• Good amount of cheese that was nicely browned - 1 point
• The texture was a bit dry...the chef left the dish in the oven a bit too long and it dried out the sauce - 0.5 point
  

Even at a less than perfect score this time around, Fat Siu Lau still ranks at the top of all the baked pork chop rice dishes I have eaten over the past 3 years. It really is that good!

This is now a must have dish for me anytime I visit Hong Kong. A day trip into Macau to see the casinos and a meal at Fat Siu Lau. It's all good!

Bonus Pic - That's me in front of the original Fat Siu Lau restuarant. Check out the 100 year old wooden door/entrance!

PS - Don't mind me in the FOBbie shirt. I ran out of clothes and had to resort to drastic measures as I was not going to miss my trip to Macau.

The Misspeaking Vice President

Question of the day:

When does Vice President Biden NOT misspeak?

Just asking...

Beat the bRuins!

If it wasn't for the controversy produced by the UCLA timeout and the subsequent USC touchdown in the final minute of the game, this game would have been considered mediocre at best. Much ink has already been spilled on the controversy and I'm not about to add any more.

What I will say is that the SC team is still playing at a very mediocre level.

• The play calling still puzzles me. For example, it's 1st and 35 (yes, 35 yards needed for a 1st down) and we decide to call a run play? Are you kidding me?
• Matt Barkley is a TOM - turnover machine. That pass he threw for an interception was absurd...regardless of what Coach Carroll says about Damian Williams not running the route correctly. (Hmmm, maybe this explains why the coaches called a run play on 1st and 35?!?!)
• USC receivers were open all night long and Barkley only threw to them a few times the entire game. We, the fans in the stands, saw the open receivers, but MB never checked down to them. Instead he forced more than a handful of passes into coverage.
• The SC defense still has problems with running quarterbacks. Can we finally do something about that? This has been a problem since 2005 (remember Vince Young?) and we still have not solved it!?!?!
• The SC kicker can't make any field goals beyond 40 yards. Can we stop attempting these long field goals already? Granted it was at the end of the first half, but let's stop kidding ourselves.
  

We have one game left against Arizona and I'm not sure how we're going to do against them. Does SC come out and play with heart/passion? Or does the TO/TD controversy this week distract the team in its preparation?

A win will probably put SC in a higher tier bowl game. With that comes an additional month's practice time which this team sorely needs....and a good headstart to next season!

Fight On!

Bonus - A pic from the near "brawl" at the end of the game.

No Heart!

After the game against ASU, I was calling this year's USC team a mediocre team. I didn't get a chance to blog about it, but articulated these thoughts to my Trojan buddies. My prediction that USC would lose 3 games was coming closer to reality. Clearly, this USC team isn't the same type of team we've seen the previous 8 years. After the thrashing Stanford gave us on Saturday, I'm here to say something much worse - This year's team has "no heart".

I hate to say it, but I have to call it as I see it. SC gave up after Barkley's pick 6. There was no fight left in the team...and after the game, a good part of the team ran off the field without shaking hands with the Stanford team. For a team that is supposed to live by the mottoes of "Always Compete" and "Fight On", this was embarrassing.

I personally have been on losing teams. When I played Frosh basketball during high school, my team went winless for the season. Yes, you read that right - WINLESS. But through it all, we always played hard and we played to the best of our abilities. And after the game ended, we always shook hands with our opponents. Being a Trojan and someone who values good sportsmanship, I am ashamed of those players who quit and just ran off the field.

I'm not going to belabor what is wrong with this year's team. There's enough people doing that as the SC blogosphere has been going apeshit since Saturday afternoon. We have 2 weeks to lick our wounds, get somewhat healthy, and prepare for our final 2 games - against UCLA and Arizona. We'll see what this team is made of as neither game is going to be easy given how the entire team has played the last 4 weeks.

Fight On!

SC's Party is Over

I should have stayed on vacation! If I had known SC would be dominated in such a manner, I would have spent an extra day or two in Hong Kong or Guangzhou.

My hat is off to the Oregon Ducks! They came to play and did what SC did when SC was winning national titles. SC's run as the Pac-10 champs and consecutive BCS bowl appearances are over. Granted, there are still games to be played, but I don't see Oregon losing 3 conference games from their remaining schedule to allow SC to sneak into the Rose Bowl. Hell, the way the SC defense was manhandled yesterday, SC is primed to lose another game.

The only positive from yesterday's thrashing was Matt Barkley's play. Yes, he was rattled at times, but that's what happens when you play from behind and you are forced to pass the ball. He did not have the deer in the headlights look and can only grow from this loss.

Now....on to the negatives:

• What happened to the defense? I wasn't able to watch the Notre Dame and Oregon State games while on vacation, but from what I read, the defense was getting progressively worse. The front 4 did what they could, but the linebackers and secondary have to make plays. Again, I ask why is SC playing this soft zone when the secondary is the most experienced group on this team? Would playing some man-to-man defense and trying to stuff the receivers at the line of scrimmage have been so bad? We know that linebackers are young and somewhat inexperienced, but the poor tackling, missed assignments, and over pursuit is inexcusable. This was just BAD!
  
• The running game was okay early on, but then disappeared. I was rather surprised by this. Knowing the Ducks have a high power offense, I thought SC would try more of a ball control offense to eat up the clock and keep the Ducks offense off the field. But that didn't happen, especially when the SC offensive line kept committing all those false start penalties and the Ducks scored almost at will to force SC into pass only mode.
• Big plays given up by both the SC special teams and defense were huge. Again, poor tackling, missed assignments, and over pursuit put us in a hole that we could not recover from.
• Lack of adjustments. I hate to do this, but one has to call out Coach Carroll and the entire coaching staff for this embarrassment. Were any adjustments made at half time? I'd be hard pressed to identify any adjustments SC made from the 1st half to the 2nd half.
  

This truly is a rebuilding year for the SC Trojans. Before the season started, I thought SC had the potential to lose 3 games this season - we lost a ton of players from the defense to the pros, all the tough games were on the road, and we were going to have a 1st year starter at QB - but I still believed we would be competitive. Now it looks like my gut feel was right. That initial loss to Washington hurts even more now.

Review: Burrito from Tacos Tumbras a Tomas

Well, the wife and I had a craving for carne asada burritos today and I headed to Tacos Tumbras a Tomas to satisfy that urge.



Tacos Tumbras (located at the Grand Central Market in Downtown Los Angeles) is known for their huge portions - be it for their tacos, tortas or burritos. It was near the end of the day when I strolled on in, so their portions get slightly bigger than usual. Check out this bad boy to see what I mean!



Yes, that is a 12oz can of soda (or in this case, a 12oz can of Chinese Lemon Ice Tea).



The burrito was generously filled with:

• 4 scoops of marinated carne asada
• 2-3 scoops of rice
• 1 scoop of beans
• Generous helping of chopped raw onions and cilantro
• 2 big spoonfuls of hot sauce (your choice of green or red sauce)
  

With the burrito (and almost everything else here), it's all about the meat and the amount they give you. As you see above, we're not talking Taco Bell sized burritos. The burrito literally requires a knife and folk to eat! The asada was very flavorful (as is their other meats - carnitas, cabeza, lengua, etc.) although a bit on the dry side today (probably the result of my going at the end of the day).

As you can see, I had no real complaint!



It was a good thing I was hungry, because on any other day, that would have been good for 2 meals. I'm stuffed...not bad for $5.50.

Tacos Tumbras a Tomas
317 S Broadway, Stall A5
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 620-1071
Mon-Sun, 9am - 6pm

Fists of Fury!

This started making the rounds, so I thought I would post it.



She's got mad Kung Fu skillz!!! Don't mess with Toisan women!

Good thing this hasn't happened to me on The Chronicles of Bus #10. If someone attempted to punch me in the face or otherwise attack me, I'd make sure I finish it!

PS - If you want to see this fight with a translation of what the Chinese woman was saying, view it here on YouTube.

Beating Up the Cal 'Gummy' Bears

The way this game played out was entirely unexpected....as evidenced by the score!



I was sure that Cal would be looking to bounce back from their game against Oregon. SC was in town and looking vulnerable. The loser of this game would more than likely be out of the Rose Bowl/Pac-10 Championship race. At best, the loser of this game would be looking at a second tier bowl game. Surely, Cal would be ready to play and would take it to the Trojans.

This appeared to be the case as Cal took the opening drive of the game and drove down the field to the SC 5 yard line. Then suddenly, the game changed when Taylor Mays intercepted a Cal pass in the end zone to deny Cal from scoring first. SC then turned that turnover into 7 points and Cal was never the same. The Cal Golden Bears suddenly turned into the 'Gummy' Bears as Cal's next 3 possessions in the SC red zone only netted a single field goal.

My take on the game:

• The SC defense continues to play solid football. We stacked the box to stop Jahvid Best and dared Kevin Riley to beat us. We were able to stop Best and Riley wasn't able to play his best to beat us. (Interesting that this is the same game plan that the Huskies used to beat us!) The defense is clearly the strength of this SC team.
• This is the best the SC offense has looked this year. There was a nice balance (35 pass attempts and 42 rushes) that helped keep the Cal defense off balance. Matt Barkley is looking more comfortable as the starting QB and I'm hoping he gets the coaches' confidence whereby the playbook gets opened up more each week. Joe McKnight gained 119 yards on 20 carries and most importantly, he didn't fumble.
  
• The SC special teams actually looked competent this week...maybe we're finally starting to see some ROI from having a special teams coach! 3 for 3 on field goals, a punt return for a TD and decent coverage on our 3 punts.
• SC only had 5 penalties. It's still a few too much for me...particularly that personal foul penalty on Taylor Mays; however, it's much better than the week before.
  
• With all the positives above, we still left a ton of points on the table when we couldn't punch it in for TDs on multiple trips into the Cal red zone. Our 3rd down efficiency is still low and we still have issues on short yardage situations (we were turned away twice on 4th and short situations).

But a win is a win and this certainly helps as SC has 2 weeks to prepare for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Hopefully, the team can get a few players back from injury (such as Ronald Johnson) and the offense can gel a little bit more. We're going to need to score as many points as possible as ND has a potent offense.

Fight On!

Has Bandwagon Fan Left the Coliseum?

That was fast....USC loses one game and bandwagon fan has abandoned ship. This was the scene at last night's game against the Washington State Cougars.

You probably can't see it all that well, but the Coliseum was not at capacity. Walking into the Coliseum, one could tell that there were less people than usual. As my wife and I got to our seats, there were entire sections that were empty, not to also mention the numerous empty seats where SC fan could typically be found. While it could be that SC fan wasn't all that excited about playing WSU, I couldn't help but think that the team needed our support after a bad loss and we all needed to be there to cheer the team on.

If these no shows were indeed bandwagon fan, I'm glad they're not there any longer. I enjoyed the extra elbow room! :-) Here's hoping they continue to stay away.

Anyways, here's my take on the WSU game:

• The SC offense looked good in the first quarter as they put up 20 points on the board with Matt Barkley back as the starting QB. A few deep Barkley passes for TDs were a sight to behold. As one will undoubtedly ask, where was this type of play and play calling the week before against UW? (And to add insult to injury, Stanford takes down UW by keeping the UW defense honest with the passing game which let Toby Gerhart run all over the UW defense.) Sigh...
  
• Unfortunately, the offense did nothing after the first quarter. The conservative play calling returned and for the final 3 quarters, SC outscored WSU by a single point, 7 - 6.
• The "special" teams play continues to be pathetic. Let's see: a botched extra point attempt, a missed field goal, etc. If this is what a dedicated special teams coach gets us, I'd rather take my chances of not having a special teams coach. At least then, the team would have an excuse for poor special teams play.
• Penalties, penalties, penalties. This was a penalty filled game and there's no excuse for that. Where is the discipline? Coach Carroll better get this cleaned up as we've got Cal, ND, OR coming up on the road and we cannot afford to kill drives with our stupid penalties.
• Dropped passes were a problem here. The team has been too dependent on Damian Williams and Ronald Johnson. With Rojo being injured, no other receiver has stepped up to help. The tight ends haven't stepped up either. The dropped TD pass by Ellison in the endzone on 4th down sums it all up.
  
• The SC defense played a solid (if not stellar) game. It's clear that the defense will have to carry the team this year. The offense still has not shown me it can score consistently where we will be able to win comfortably...especially on the road. The only thing that gets me is that Coach Carroll continues to call for that soft zone on 3rd and long plays.....and it continually gives the opposition big chunks of yards (if not the 1st down).
  
• I hate to say it, but Aaron Corp's playing days at SC are numbered. I was hoping that with the solid 20-point lead going into the second half, Coach Carroll would put Corp into the game to rebuild his confidence and let him lead the offense. Not to also mention that Barkley took a few hard hits in the first half and one would like to keep Barkley out of harms way with Cal coming up next. Unfortunately, we didn't see Corp until the 4th quarter; and on his first pass play, Corp fumbled the ball which WSU recovered and turned into their lone scoring drive. The fans boo'd Corp and I felt bad for him. As an SC fan, I want Corp to succeed...I want him to be able to step in and step up should we need him. This definitely does not help the team as we now have to hope and pray that Barkley can make it through the rest of the season without getting injured. I just don't know if we can count on Corp to step up and lead the team.
  

Well, that's it for now. It's on to Cal...which should be a really tough game as Oregon absolutely embarrassed Cal (42 - 3) and Cal will be looking to bounce back at home against SC.

Fight On!

Should Have Been a Doctor

Well, my dad had a follow-up visit with the doctor who implanted his defibrillator this week. I'm happy to report the following:

• Almost all the bruising and swelling is gone from the area of his surgery
  
• My dad's vitals are good
• My dad is reporting no more pain

My dad still has to be careful with his left arm in that he can't raise it above his shoulder for the next 4 weeks, but the news from this visit was very encouraging.

I do want to share a few photos that I took of the waiting area in the doctor's office.



Obviously, the doctor is doing well. Maybe I should have heeded my parents' advice and been a doctor instead. It certainly would have taken me out of my current work environment.

USC Continues a Disturbing Pattern

First off, congrats to WA - in particular to Sark and Holt - for upsetting Pete Carroll and the USC Trojans!

Here is my breakdown of the game:

• Having seen Aaron Corp up close and personal for 2 years prior to taking over the WA Huskies, Sark and Holt came up with the perfect gameplan to upset the USC Trojans. They stuffed the box and dared the Trojans to beat them with the passing game. SC just couldn't do it.
• The playcalling by SC left me scratching my head. I could be wrong, but the team didn't run a single "play action pass" play the entire game. Seeing that WA was stuffing the box to stop the SC running game, why wouldn't you call a play action pass? Get the WA secondary to bite on a fake running play to allow your receivers to steal a step for a big pass play. Also, I don't understand why SC did not try to move the pocket or run some bootlegs (playing to Corp's strength, his mobility) to give him time to find open receivers or to run the ball himself?
  (Note: I am a big Norm Chow fan. I don't find it coincidental that SC has not won a BCS Championship since he left. I'm just saying...)
  
• Turnovers: USC 3, WA 0. To make matters worse, all 3 turnovers were in the red zone for the Trojans. Just one of those turned into a score would have been the difference.
• Time mismanagement: not getting off the field goal at the end of the 1st half was horrendous. This was the direct result of running a running play on 3rd down when the team had no timeouts remaining. SC doesn't get the first down to stop the clock and time runs out before they can attempt the field goal. Again, questionable playing calling that took 3 points off the board for SC.
  
• SC could not convert on 3rd down situations (see point above), while WA could. Prolonging possessions gave WA more opportunities to control the game and the game clock.
  
• Aaron Corp looked like he hasn't played in a long long time. Or maybe he just isn't that good? This may explain why Coach Carroll didn't want to name Corp the starter during the week and was hoping that Barkley could play this game. Aaron just did not look like a leader as he did not instill any confidence in the offense.
  
• As I said last week, the SC offense not being able to score would be a big problem. Little did I know that it would cost SC the game against WA. Imagine what the score will be when SC plays Cal or the D'oh-mers.
• Punting is still a major problem for the Trojans. If the offense can't move the ball, SC is going to need better production from the punting game as you can't average only ~35 yards per punt. WA was getting good to excellent field position from almost every SC punt.
  

It'll be interesting to see how far the USC Trojans drop in the Top 25 standings. If the drop is like Oklahoma State, the Trojans will be in the teens. The only saving grace is that WA played LSU tough as well. If not for that, the Trojans may be dropping into the twenties next week.

Well, just like the last few years, SC loses a game it had no business losing. The disturbing pattern continues...and the toughest games are yet to come. It may be a long season, SC fans.

Review: Taco Bell's Nacho Crunch Burrito

As I've said before, I'm a sucker for the marketing. Watching all that college football on Saturday meant that I saw the Taco Bell commercial for their new 1/2 pound burritos about 80 times. I couldn't find the commercial on YouTube to share with you, but it's the one with Evander Holyfield where he orders one of the 3 new burritos that Taco Bell is offering:

Well, the wife and I were getting some gas for the car today and on the way to the gas station, we passed by a Taco Bell. I couldn't help but comment about the burrito and the Holyfield commercial, so the wife insisted that I get it (I'm sure she just wants me to get it so I don't constantly comment on the burrito every time we pass by a Taco Bell).

Well, first of all, the Nacho Crunch burrito didn't look like the photo above. However, it sure was tasty!

The burrito had the following:

• Ground beef
• Nacho cheese sauce
• Strips of tortilla chips
  
• Tomatoes
  
• Sour cream
  

There was a good amount of sour cream and nacho cheese sauce throughout, so every bite was flavorful. The only issue I encountered is that you need to eat the burrito quickly! Because there is so much sauce, the tortilla chips which is supposed to give the burrito its crunch got very soggy.

My verdict: If the Nacho Crunch Burrito stays on the menu for $1.99, I will definitely get it again.

USC vs Ohio State - What a Game!

Wow wow wow...



It was the game I expected and it was the game I didn't expect.

First off, the things I expected:

• The Buckeyes played one hell of a game! I had a feeling they would...given 1) the score from last year's game and 2) OSU wanted to shut their critics up. My hat is off to the Buckeyes...there is nothing to be ashamed about from this loss. They left it all on the field. No one can ever say that OSU can't play with the top ranked teams.
  
  
• The SC defense came to play and thank goodness for that!
  

The things I didn't expect:

• The SC offense was dreadful (other than the final game-winning drive). Of course, this had a lot to do with the way the Buckeye defense played as the Buckeyes pushed the SC O-line and pressured Matt Barkley all night long. However, this was supposed to be the strength of the team, so this was very disconcerting. Only scoring 18 points is not going to cut it against Cal or Notre Dame.
  
  
• The SC special teams was even more dreadful than the offense (poor punting, missed tackles on returns, screwing up a punt for a safety, etc.). Is this what we can expect with the special teams even though we have a Special Teams coach this year? Not a very good return on investment on the coach's salary (if you ask me)!
  
  
• Matt Barkley was calm and poised tonight. That game-winning drive will go down in SC Football lore just like Matt Leinart's drive against Notre Dame in 2005 (you know, the Bush Push).
  

The team gets to enjoy the victory tonight and then immediately starts to prepare for the Washington game next Saturday. I have a feeling it'll be a tough game against the Sark offensive playbook and the Holt defensive schemes. It's basically a battle between the teacher (Coach Carroll) vs his pupils (Sark and Holt).

Fight On!

Update 9/13/09:

The Barkley drive and Leinart drive for your viewing pleasure:

Review: EXiM Screen Protector

If you recall from my review of the SwitchEasy Colors case (here and here), SwitchEasy included 2 screen protectors to use with the iPhone 3GS.

Unfortunately, the screen protectors didn't last very long as scratches developed on the screen protectors in less than a day of heavy usage. I'm a bit anal about these things and decided to go back to a tried and true screen protector that I had used on my Sony Ericsson M600i - the EXiM screen protector.

The EXiM isn't cheap as they cost roughly $11 for a single protector. However, let me tell you that the EXiMs can take a beating and are very scratch resistant. Here's some marketing copy from their packaging:

The EXiM SPUC is made of patented glue-free silicone rubber adhesive coating which makes it washable and reusable. What's more, the EXiM SPUC is made of Japan-made highly engineered P.E.T. film which offers excellent optical clarity and anti-scratch performance. It is highly durable and can last for a long period of time under normal usage.

I ordered the EXim through eBay and here's what I received:





Applying the screen protector was easy, but be sure to really wipe off all of the dust from your iPhone first. You don't want any dust trapped between your iPhone and the screen protector as that'll cause air bubbles to show up.



I've had the EXiM screen protector on for over a month now and it's still scratch free. It looks as good as the day I received it. Not only am I using this on my iPhone, my wife is also using it on her BlackBerry Bold.

PS - I purchased the EXiM screen protectors from eBay seller "pda-now". He's based in Hong Kong, but is quick with the shipping.

Review: Wendy's Honey BBQ Boneless Wings

Wendy's commercials for their new boneless wings have been all over the TV lately. One can't help but see them while watching college football on TV.

Well, the wife and I couldn't decide what to have for dinner the other night and since we didn't want to cook, we headed out for fast food. I must be a sucker for the marketing because we ended up at Wendy's and I decided to give their new Boneless Wings a try.



The honey BBQ wings I ordered came in a nice secure package that kept the wings warm and the sauce from dripping. The wings looked promising and I was hoping that they would be moist and tender with a lot of flavor; unfortunately, the wings turned out to be quite dry with the only flavor coming from the honey BBQ sauce (of which there wasn't enough). I ended up using some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce that I had in the fridge to finish eating them. Given this experience, I'd be hard pressed to try the other 2 flavors - Bold Buffalo and Sweet & Spicy Asian Chicken.

Quite a shame, because I typically like Wendy's food....and my wife absolutely loves the buns Wendy's uses for their burgers.

College Football Has Started! Go USC!!!

I'm a big college football fan. It's not hard to be when:

1. Los Angeles has no NFL team
2. The college game is just so much more fun

If you couldn't tell from my "About Me" avatar, I'm a USC Trojan fan! I went to SC when the football program was down in the dumps (meaning the team was in a losing streak to both the UCLA bRuins and Notre Dame Fighting Irish). As you can imagine, I'm thoroughly enjoying the "success" that the team is having under Coach Pete Carroll and became season ticket holders a few years back. Nothing lasts forever, so I'm enjoying the ride and hoping for one more BCS Championship within the next year or two.

Here are a few photos from the San Jose State game that I wanted to share:


(Trojans about to kickoff to the Spartans.)


(Trojans about to score.)


(Part of the USC Marching Band making its way around the Coliseum)

FIGHT ON!!!

The Dysfunctional Workplace: Part 2

For those of you who read my earlier post, I'm sure you're probably thinking that almost everyone has a few complaints about their workplace. I'm sure you're right, but I honestly feel that my current company (let's call them CDE) is one of the worst.

With Labor Day just a few days away, I thought I would do a more detailed post about CDE. Without further ado...

On the surface, one would assume that CDE would be a fabulous place to work. CDE is located in sunny Southern California, in one of the nicest office complexes around; one gets exposed to the latest and greatest widgets and widget news in the widget obsessed culture that is Southern California; the pay is decent and the benefits are top notch - where else do you get 13 paid holidays a year along with the ability to earn 3 weeks of paid time off (PTO)?

Alas, that is where the positives end and the cons begin. Grab a seat, get your popcorn and soda, and be prepared for the inner workings of the most dysfunctional workplace ever!

Let's begin...in no particular order:

1. Can you say bloated? One of the only straight shooters in the company commented to me once that CDE could fire half it's employees and be no worse for wear. He is absolutely spot on. Seriously! There are people "working" at CDE that I have absolutely no clue as to what they do. These people add absolutely no value. While I admire Senior Management for not wanting to lay off people, CDE is in the business of making money. CDE should not be a charity. Get rid of the dead weight already.
   
   
2. There is absolutely no sense of urgency within the rank and file. Things get done when they get done. Internet companies typically release updates to their website every 3 to 6 weeks. At CDE it takes 3 to 6 months...and we're an agile/scrum shop to boot. There's seriously nothing agile about the company.
   
   
3. No one really cares if they do a good job or not. Since no one ever gets fired or laid off, why bother doing a good job? There are no serious repercussions for a job poorly done. Sure, you may get marginalized, but you are still employed and doing less than before for the same salary. No wonder no one ever leaves! Sometimes I wonder if I'm working in a union for a government agency.
   
   
4. Too many cooks in the kitchen. Everyone has a say at CDE, but no one is truly responsible for anything. Worst yet, you may be given the responsibility to get things done, but you have no authority to get them done. I'm one of these "unlucky" individuals and I'm hating every fucking minute of my job.
   
   
5. Before working here, someone had told me that CDE does a lot of numbers crunching and places a lot of emphasis on the numbers. That's true when it applies to calculating widget prices within a given area or projecting the annual widget sales rate, but CDE has a serious problem with using numbers to run the business. What good is knowing your page views for the previous week when there are no revenue numbers associated with it? How does someone run a business when no one has a clue as to whether the company made any money yesterday or is making any money so far today? If one truly looked at the web statistics, it tells us that CDE's website has a serious abandonment/bounce rate issue, but yet the company doesn't undertake any project to address it. WTF! We spent money to acquire visitors to our website, but we let them go without monetizing them. Can someone please explain that to me?
   
   
6. At CDE, we're paid to take orders...we're not paid to think or be smart business people. You can have real world data and have tested something fabulous, but if a senior exec already has his mind made up on how something should be, get ready to throw out months of work to execute their exact whim.
   
   
7. If you are new to CDE, don't expect your fellow employees to come up with great new ideas to grow the business. Everyone is conditioned to do what they are told...and no more than that. Employees do the bare minimum. Anything that will cause extra work is frowned upon.
   
   
8. Don't even get me started on the number of times that management changes its mind. Management can be involved and have sat through months of meetings, but they'll change their minds at the last minute and we'll be starting all over again.
   
   
9. Politics, politics, politics. CDE is good at politics. Almost everything is politicized. I'd be hard pressed to name one thing that isn't politicized as all the powers that be are building their little fiefdoms and trying to wrest more and more under their control. Back handed slaps and comments to weaken your rivals, saying one thing to your face while doing something completely different to wreck your project are all part of the game here.
   
   
10. Can you say passive aggressive? Almost everyone at CDE is passive aggressive. No one ever says anything negative to your face. It always goes up the chain of command and back down to you in your formal review. I don't know about you, but if someone doesn't like my work or has issues with it, I expect them to come to me so we can address it. Going to my manager and not giving me the opportunity to ask questions to understand what the complaint is does no one any good. Are we still in grade school that you can't tell me what's wrong? I must have been mistaken to think that we're all professional, working adults. My bad!
    
    
11. CDE needs to stop lying to itself by thinking its a technology company. It clearly is not as the company has never learned to use the off-the-shelf technologies it has bought nor has it ever developed anything of value internally. Again, it takes CDE 3-6 months to release anything onto the website. Enough said!
    
    
12. For being an Internet company, CDE is deathly afraid of change. If something isn't final or completed, no one is going to touch it or work on it. Even the smallest changes, such as changing the color of a button or changing the button location, elicits a big groan from the Development organization. Since when does the Internet stand still for us to "perfect" everything? Isn't the whole point of an Internet company or website to change/adapt quickly and iterate over time to get better? I guess no one ever informed CDE of this!

If these cons amount to anything positive, it's that working at CDE allows for great work-life balance. As you can imagine, it's strictly a 9 to 6 job since no one really stays in the office past 6pm.

To recap for you:

CDE Pros: Great benefits, such as 3 weeks of PTO and lots of paid holidays. Good work life balance.

CDE Cons: Too many to list...and trying to call out just one or two would be a disservice. I don't want people to think that CDE is better than it actually is.

My Advice to Management: Run the company like a money making business with headcount that matches the revenue numbers. Stop running the business like a hole-in-the-wall taco stand. (Apologies as I just insulted taco stands!)

A Few New Firearm Accessories

It's been a while since I've written about my burgeoning Walther handgun collection (alright, I only own 2 handguns), but I thought I would share with you a few accessories that I recently acquired.

The first is a new shooter's bag. I purchased a Winchester brand shooter's bag from the local Walmart for $20. It's a handy little bag that is big enough to hold:

• Handgun ammo (around 600 rounds)
• Cleaning supplies
• Holsters
• Handguns
• Spare Magazines

Next I purchased a set of Dillon Ammo boxes. I wanted something sturdier than the cardboard ammo boxes and foam inserts holding my 9mm ammo. These Dillon boxes look like they'll last for the long haul.




Finally, I purchased a magazine holder that securely holds 2 Walther P99 mags. As I had blogged back in May, the Walther P99 mags are extremely thin for being double stack mags. After a fair amount of research, I ended up getting the DeSantis Double Magazine pouch (model #A01BJGGZ0).




Normal retail for this leather magazine pouch is $45, but a seller on one of the gun forums that I frequent was selling one for $20. As you can see from the pic above, the mags fit perfectly and the leather is strong enough to take a good beating.

I'm actually hoping to acquire one more handgun. Any guesses as to what it could be? My one hint to you is that it will also be a Walther.

Best Movie Line Ever!

I needed a good laugh and spotted this!



Unfortunately, the line applies to both the Dems and GOP today as each party just follows what their special interests and backers tell them. No party really represents the public anymore. The days of "the Best and the Brightest" running our government are long gone.

It's all about what the politician can:

1. Get for himself
2. Get for his special interests
3. Get for his party
4. Get for the public

The Dysfunctional Workplace

Can I tell you that I honestly hate the company that I work at!?! It has got to be the most dysfunctional company I've had the "pleasure" of working for in my career. This is the one place where shit never gets done and no one seems to care.

Honestly, I've never been at a place with such a lack of urgency, business sense and enthusiasm. Everyone just comes to work, does as little as possible and goes home. (And "NO", I do not work for the government. It's actually a private company...a family owned and family run company.)

What I hate is that I have all the responsibility, but none of the authority. All the authority resides with senior management. The senior execs love throwing their $0.02 in every chance they get and don't mind throwing a monkey wrench into the works even though the monkey wrench flies in the face of logic or a decision they helped make a few weeks earlier.

It's just a fucking nightmare working for these people. If I can just find a new gig, I would thoroughly enjoy resigning from my position!

Defibrillator Implanted!

Well, August 27th finally arrived!

I woke up bright and early to take my dad to the hospital to have the procedure of implanting a defibrillator. We got to the hospital around 8:40am where we proceeded to spend the next 40 minutes filling out paperwork. After that was completed, it was on the surgery preparation which took about an hour. Before we knew it, it was 11am and my dad was rolled off to surgery.

My mom and I were told that the procedure would take roughly 2-3 hours, so we decided to wait in the waiting area. Well, that 3 hour wait turned into a 5 hour wait. Because my dad had had open heart surgery (a quadruple bypass), it made the defibrillator procedure a lot more complex. As you can imagine, I started to get concerned when it hit 4 hours and we still had not seen the doctor. A nurse finally came out to let us know that it was taking longer than expected, but that my dad was doing well.

The doctor finally came out when it was all done and told us that everything went well. The defibrillator was implanted and everything was functioning properly. He said that my dad should feel better as the defibrillator helps synchronize his heart rhythm and should also help minimize the fluid build-up in his lungs that caused his last cardiac episode.

After speaking with the doctor, the nurses told us that my dad would be taken to Recovery ICU and then would be taken to a room where he would spend the night. Well, that process took another 4 hours as there were no rooms available for when my dad was ready to be moved. (Note: if it took 4 hours to get a room in a private hospital, I can only imagine what the wait would be like when the Feds take control of health care in the US.)

My mom and I got to see my dad while he was in Recovery ICU. When we first saw him, he did not look well at all. He was still groggy from the anesthesia and his face (particularly his cheeks) had no color at all. He was completely white. We were quite concerned, but the nurse assured us that he was fine. After about 30 minutes from that initial visit, color did return to his face once he woke up and was given some food.

We watched as the nurses measured his vitals - his temperature was fine, heart rate looked good and EKG came back strong. If this continues, I believe we'll be in good shape! My dad will stay in the hospital overnight and we'll take him home tomorrow.

Obviously, we still have to be careful for the next 6 weeks as my dad isn't allowed to raise his left arm above his shoulder as doing so could pull the defibrillator wires out of position. However, I'm optimistic my day at the hospital was well spent.

Review: Class 302's Pork Chop Noodles

My wife and I were in Rowland Heights yesterday and decided to go to a small Taiwanese restaurant called Class 302 for lunch. If you're not familiar with Class 302, they're known for their Taiwanese Shaved Snow. I'm not much for shave ice, but shaved snow is a different story. I always order it here.



We decided to try their regular fare and I ended up ordering the Railroad Style Pork Chop Dry Noodle (with the name of Baked Pork Chop Goodness you know I had to order a pork dish).



The pork chop was fried but the coating was wet at the same time. The noodles were thick with a bit of sauce that had small pieces of pork. Mixed in were some chopped green scallions along with some lightly steamed cabbage.

I tried the pork chop first. The texture was gummy and the pork was bland. I then mixed everything together and it was better, but the dish was still rather bland. I ended up adding a ton of pepper to flavor the entire dish.

This was my first time having a Taiwanese dry pork chop noodle dish, so I'm not sure if the texture and flavor were authentic. However, it's not a fav, so I'd suggest just ordering the shaved snow.

Class 302
1015 S. Nogales St., #125
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
(626) 965-5809

Note: Class 302 is really small (hole in the wall small). If you go on the weekend for lunch, be prepared for a lengthy wait.