New Business idea:

A bit of background-
when I would first go to my now wife's parent's house one thing I was a little surprised by were the strings and srings of pleated garlic hanging all over the kitchen, I hadn't really seen such things before. There were strings of onions also all pleated together by thier leaves. Aparantly every time the family would go abroad to Spain or Portugal they would pick up loads of these strings and bring them home as gifts for friends, and of course to decorate thier own kitchen. They would buy them from local markets, villagers having strung them together. Of course these strings never quite work for me and my wife, we get through the garlic and certainly the onions so fast that the strings never last too long. However they look nice and certainly add a rustic feel to a kitchen. So when I spied a few at our local farmers market this weekend I wandered over to get a look, thinking I might buy a string. Then I saw the price tag......... $22! and this was for the tiniest string, only about 10 heads of garlic. I couldn't believe they could get way with charging that much.

So simply idea-undercut these idiots. Maybe this business idea is not for me- but someone who has a piece of land- grow some garlic string it up and get selling!

So I started doing a bit of a search for internships today- just to see what is out there and my main conclusion- WetFeet.com sucks! Everyone had told me this is the ebst place to look for internships but it is just awful, so commercial and only comes up with those scammy internships they show you on craigslist where you work for "environmental groups" and basically stand on the street with a clip board.
Still google it seems is a much better tool for this than Wet Feet, and I found agood list of internships in the Bay Area which is where I may well be living.
gspp.berkeley.edu/career_resources/docs/intstats_2006.pdf

Maybe I can also try Craigslist up there as it seems to be a lot better than the one we have down here (Not that I am moaning San Diego Craigslist- you are great on the furniture side of things just not so hot with jobs and volunteer oppertunities.)

Still feeling very unsure of myself and the future- getting conflicting advice coming in from all over the place.

I have been talking to people who say you should not even bother applying for an MBA unless you have 5 years work experience- 3 years being the absolute minimum.

Other people have been telling me how useless a Masters Degree in Policy would be and how it isn't worth the money.

I just don't know- it seems like one of the best things that comes out of either of these is the contacts and the internships. So now I am starting to think if this really is the bet thing to come out can I not just do the internships without the high tuition costs and the seemingly almost useless piece of paper at the end? I am going to start looking around for internships and see if this would be a possibility- if it doesn't work out I can always apply the year after.

So one more year and I will be half way to fifty. Yikes I am getting old, 24 is probably time to start making some decisions. I feel like there is nothign I am sure about anymore, like I am undeciding things more than deciding.

I don't have a clue about career yet, which means I don't know what education path to get myself on.

I don't know where I want to live- I thought it was San Diego, but then now I think probably not, I thought it was California at least, but now I think I am not even sure about that, I'm not even sure if I want to live on the West Coast. I uess we are pretty sure we want to live in the US, but even then sometimes we change our minds.

I think we are pretty sure we want three kids- but if there was ever anything as unrealiable and almost unplannable as that.... and even if we do have three kids how can we afford them.

Hmm, I thought life would get less confusing as I got older, not more.

Today we decided to make a big lifestyle change in the pursuit of happiness.
Stop watching the shows we watch all the time, stop with any unhealthy food/ and other such habits, start conciously saving money. My wife wants to get rid of the TV altogether but I'm not sure about that yet.
On the proactive side, go out for more walks, go to the zoo more, go to the beach occasionally, go hiking, camping, snorkelling. All very idealistic probably but I think we should give it a shot. stop feeling so lazy and tired all the time and start to refuel our energy.

I celebrated my 1st wedding anniversary this weekend- an impressive feat I feel, we have at least beaten all the celebrities. In truth it all went by rather quickly, and it amazes me that peoples marriages could ever last less than a year. I guess those are the people who sit around not doing too much else, with tons of time to over analyze.

Anyway my wedding anniversary made me come up with a great new business idea- well it seems it has already partly been done- but I think I could do it better. For those of you (most likely guys) who don't know, each wedding anniversary corresponds to a different material. 1st year is paper, 25th silver etc. Now there are also "modern anniversaries"

Traditional / Modern
1 Paper/ Clocks
2 Cotton / China
3 Leather / Crystal, Glass
4 Linen / Appliances
5 Wood / Silverware
6 Iron / Wood
7 Wool / Desk Sets
8 Bronze / Linens, lace
9 Pottery / Leather
10 Tin / Diamond
11 Steel / Fashion Jewelry
12 Silk / Colored Gems
13 Lace / Textiles
14 Ivory / Gold Jewelry
15 Crystal / Watches
20 China / Platinum
25 Silver / Sterling Silver
30 Pearl / Diamond
35 Coral / Jade
40 Ruby / Ruby
45 Sapphire / Sapphire
50 Gold / Gold
55 Emerald / Emerald
60 Diamond / Diamond


Personally I think the modern ones are a bit dumb- (desk sets? clocks?) plus they have diamonds 3 times, when the only time a diamond might possibly be worth buying would be after 60 years of marriage.

Anyhow here is the idea, create a web business that not only provides great ideas for dealing with all these anniversary gift types, but also sells you some of the ideas. Now this About site almost does this, but I think it could be made much more fun, appealing, and commercial (non offensive commercial) surely just what any guy has been looking for.

My mom's thoughts:

seems like the thrust of response to this world cup has been sadness of defeat.
who would have that that uber-successful Beckham would evoke such
sympathy. But the photos of his response to the loss, his
resignation, even the photo of him returning to England with "wife and
child" were so sad. Joy, such as Ghana's at making it to the initial
rung of the finals matches, fades to the past.
Germany who handled loss with such dignity and acceptance, good words
to say for the Italians even, just took away from the fun of Italy
pulling through. Now I am unrealistically thinking maybe scores
shouldn't count unless unless at least 15 minutes are given to the
other team to respond pull something together) plus Italy also has
these game fixing allegations to deal with
Brasil, whom I truly hoped would win -- at least somebody from
another continent should be there at the end -- seemed to evoke the
least sadness -- I was stunned and in disbelief --I love the fun and
enjoyable skill show-off-ness that can be part of Brasil's play ---
but I did not feel the tragedy of defeat. Is that because of less
coverage and media sympathy/empathy for non-first world/European
countries? Or because the assumption that they will be there strong
again next world cup, so a loss is just a little blip.. Or maybe that
the game still has more elements of fun there?
is the world cup too big, with too much riding on these single games.
luck/serendipity can be such a large part of a too highly evaluated
prize. It needs to be more fun, more communal joy, less tragedy.

I thought it might be interesting now the world cup is over to post some thoughts from my friends and family as to how it all went.

Here for a start are my wife's thoughts:

It was really quite a disappointing world cup. Not so much because chosen teams didn't get through (although that didn't help), but there was just a lack of excitement, very few goals scored, very denfensive football being played and far far too much coming down to chance alone. I didn't think any of the teams in the semi finals deserved to win the world cup. I guess we had been hyping it up after having so much fun last world cup and this was a little disappointing.
I think our situation didn't help things either- last world cup we were in England on a break from school, watched all the games live (usually along with Ben, Harriet, my dad and my uncle Stephen). This year we often watched in the evensong after the games had been played (which for me somehow is not so much fun), almost always by ourselves, and were deprived of the excitement of a surrounding Nation. Even at Little Italy on Sunday we found many of the people were just there to party, or be belligerent rather than actually watch the game.
I think I am changing a lot too- I don't think sport deserves the emotional energy and substantial time I used to give it. When I was 16 years old I was the most fanatic football fan. Going to all the Cambridge United games I could, watching every Premiership match on the TV, the European matches, everything. I knew every player, every back story- I loved it so much.
However after a few years- mainly after taking a break from it all in Brazil, I realized that it was not worth my time and energy. The leagues I especially found to be so transient. There was no real loyalty- players who had been at a club for years would suddenly start to play for their arch rivals, provided they were paid enough. In the end the league came down to how much money a club had and which players they could buy. Interesting for some perhaps, but increasingly not my thing.
This being the case I still loved international soccer as this was where the loyalty still existed, this is where people really played with passion for their country, selflessly wanting to win for their fans and their nation. Such a sense of camaraderie.
I think this is till the case, but there was too much bitter disappointment in this World Cup- only Ghana and Italy came out winners. Last time around Northern Ireland did tremendously well, so did South Korea, and Brazil of course. England didn't go too far, but we beat our deadly rivals Argentina and the country was in carnival mode. Somehow there seemed less of those minor successes this world cup. I hope I will enjoy it more next year and it is not just that I have grown apart and started to find this a trivial affair.

Had a great day today,

Went down to Little Italy to watch the world cup final. I hadn't actually realized what a huge Italian population San Diego had, they outnumbered the French 100 to 1. A huge screen had been set up in the street, so that all could watch, literally thousands of people were there.

of course along with the good atmosphere you get the bad also. Some guy- who had evidently been drinking since 8am in the morning, was sitting on a chair, and yelling at the 100 or so chairless people in front of him to move out his way as they were blocking his view. This was about the most obnoxious thing I could imagine, and his yelling continued for much of the first half, spoiling the game a little and certainly suggesting that perhaps he wasn't all that interested in watching anyhow.

I was initially supporting Franc- Zidane being my main reason, wanting him to have a good exit out. I have to say I was a little swayed by the huge crowd around me, and my thought of the scenes of celebration- but nothing did more to complete my shift in allegiance than the head but. How sad that it should end like this for him. We expect such things from the youngsters, hot and fiery tempers from the likes of Rooney, Christiano Ronaldo, and the 98 Beckham, that is just part of the world cup. But we do expect these older ones, Figo and Zidanne, the greats of this decade, to set an example, to be sportsmen, It was a shame and left us all with a bad taste in the mouth.

This has been sadly quite a disappointing world cup.

EIN number arrived- already, yay.

I'm actually amazed how quickly it came, I am definitely not used to government doing things at any sort of resaonable pace. My wife's visa, permanent resident card, and work permit have all taken extortionate long to come throuhg- i'm talking years- and yet this one little number came in a matter of days. I guess it shows what this capitalist country values- businesses. And of course not only that, but the government is of course very encouraging of you paying them all the taxes you can.

Okay,

All my paperwork has been turned in and I think I should be just about ready to start my own business once all the tax numbers come back. I never really imagined that thngs would be this complicated, and this is just the beginning, once I set up I will have to figure out complicated tax returns. I didn't really ever think about that side of running a business, I always think of management strategies,how to invest, how to budget etc. I wonder if a going for an online MBA would help with this sort of thing. This aspect never occurred to me, and I bet there will be many more things that occur to me along the way that I hadn't anticipated. It probably is time to start thinking about online business school , it should help me to avoid these sort of pitfalls.

I think I have finally got to grips with the tax laws involved with starting up a business in California. All I need is a FEIN (Federal Employer identification Number) at the Federal Level and a Business Tax Certificate for San Diego.

I don't need to get a "fictious name" for my business as I can use my last name and a one word description.

I can register as a Sole proprietorship which is much less complicated than anything else.

After all the research things turned out to be fairly straight forward, but I can tell you getting to this point of clarity took rather a log time!

The value of whales...

I remember back in school, in my environmental economics class being introduced to the idea of a non-monetary good through a thought experiment with Whales. Often when we talk about environmental econ, we talk about sustainable harvesting, the minimum viable population (MVP) etc, with the thought that it would be economically harmful to kill of a population of a species, as we will be unable to harvest and sell in the future. It is usually an example of a short term gain which is attractive but less financially viable as the long term profit could be.
This is not the case with Whales however, whales reproduce so slowly, that it has been shown in a very famous paper, that for maximum profit it would make most sense to harvest every single whale today and put the money in the bank. The interest the money could earn would grown at a far faster rate than whales can reproduce at. If we advocate keeping whales through economic principles we must look to some other means, some other value. Perhaps as predators they help to control prey numbers in their marine environments, perhaps they form the habitat of some species of barnacle tat like to live on whales' backs. Some people also point to the pursuit of whale watching, saying that this is a more valuable and sustainable use of whales that is harvesting them for their meat.
It seems to me that most people when faced with this thought experiment will try to find some economic reason in the whales' favor. And yet it seems apparent to me that in conducting this search they do so not because they really feel that we need the revenue associated with Whale watching, and not because they care about obscure barnacle species, but simply because they cannot be faced with the idea that whales have no value. To them whales have immense value, and it is this indescribable value, the value they cannot place their fingers on, the value that they just inherently and yet strongly believe to be there. This is not necessarily an intrinsic value of the species, as intrinsic value implies no human application, but some sort of emotional value that is incredibly difficult to tie down.

The Japanese and Co. have won over the International Whaling Commission in their first bid to remove the moratorium on commercial hunting. We are all horrified, and yet do we ever really stop to examine why this shocks us so much, and exactly what it is that we value so much. Indeed how many of us have even been so lucky as to see a whale- is it simply enough that they exist in the world?

Its so nice when you search on Google and the exact (and somewhat obsure) thing you have been searching for comes up on the first page, giving you all the information you need and ending your worries.
This has, fortunately, recently been the case in my search ofhow to work from home in San Diego and report one's own taxes. As I searched for the requirements in California one of the first things that appeared was this highly instructive piece from Daniel Greene . It really is so great and makes me optomistic about our society that people actually bother to put this stuff up on the web, simply for the use of other people. They themselves benefit nothing from doing so but they help people like myself immensley.

So, having recovered from the shock of last night I can report our experiences

It all begins with my decision to buy a 47 inch television, to go with our new love sac and which should make for a fantastic world cup (and beyond).
We had been looking at TVs for a while, and finally yesterday through a variety of negotiating tactics found one we wanted and got it down to a very reasonable price. The trouble was we now had to get it delivered. These TVs just don't quite fit in the back of an SUV.

So, having always had great success with Craig's list I looked in the labor/move section for someone to help us out- expecting some guy with a truck who needs to make some extra cash on the side.

We called around and got a variety of estimates- some were pretty outrageous, and some couldn't do anything for another week or so. We found one however, who seemed really promising, we managed to bargain him down to a great price, and were sold on the fact that he had a padded truck, and was a 'professional' mover- rather than just a guy with a truck. He also said he would bring another guy, limiting the lifting for me which suited me perfectly. We called the guy and arranged to meet him at the previous owner's house at 6.30pm.
"
6.30 came and went so we gave the guy a call, who assured us he was "about to leave", at about 7.15pm we called again and got no answer at all. 7.30 arrived and they called to say they were "on the freeway". By this time we had got out of our car and were sitting in the previous owners house making small talk and endless apologies. Finally a little after 8pm we heard a huge racket, thinking it might be the mover we looked out the door to see a fully 20 feet long truck outside. Not what we had been picturing.

The guy got out, and I'm sorry to be judgmental, looked like the biggest crook around. This was confirmed when he opened up his truck and saw it was full of construction junk- wheelbarrows, old tires, tools and goodness knows what else. There were no pads in site, just a few old blankets. At this point we should have just given up, asked him to leave and come back with a different mover in the morning. However we had been waiting almost 2 hours now and really wanted to get the thing over with- needing to spend today studying.

The guy pops into the house with his Mexican helper who we find out is out on his first job. He looks at the TV and tells us that he doesn't usually move these anymore. Why not? We ask. Oh- because they usually don't work after they have been moved he replies. Nervous laughter ensues and we can't tell really whether he is joking, but alarmingly it seems he is not.

A dolly was brought over from the truck and the TV was (I will admit) skillfully placed on top of it and fairly carefully wheeled out- although we did have to jump in and stop them from dragging the electrical cord through a puddle of water.
Next came rearranging the junk in the truck and wrapping the TV up. This took an age. Meanwhile me, my wife and the previous owner stood around casting horrified glances at each other, wondering what on earth we had done. I wasn't sure what I was most afraid of that the guy would break the TV or that he would drive off never to be seen off again. As time wore on and I got his license plate and truck description I started to worry most about the former feeling that there was no way he could get away with the latter.

Meanwhile our mover busied about making very inappropriate jokes , and asking wierd questions such as how much we had paid for the TV (was he thinking how much he could make off it?). My wife stood to the side her mouth fully hanging open in shock and numb disbelief and I thought of the yelling at I would receive if we had just thrown all that money down the drain.

Still by the time it was packaged in I must say the TV did look very secure and well wrapped up- my main remaining worry being that something might fall onto it. Before setting off we shaved a further few dollars from the guy's fee. We wrote down our address for them, and then- this might have been thefunniest moment of the evening- the guy gave us his business card, and gave on to the previous owner, saying he hoped we would use him again. This was so dilusional I would have felt sorry for the guy if it had not been for my already overworked concern about my television.

We drove very slowly down the freeway with the guy following us all the way, making sure he never got more than a car apart from us and were relieved when he pulled in at our apartment. This was now going to be the most difficult part as the TV had be move up 2 flights of stairs. My wife being full of nerves ran inside and hid from the whole ordeal, I stayed out to'supervise' and make sure nothing horrible happened. I was pleased to see that nothing had so far gone wrong with the screen, although I was sure that the guys (the inexperienced Mexican most likely) would not get their delivery safely up the stairs.

Surprisingly however this was something the seemed moderately adept at and the TV arrived safe and sound up the stairs in a very short space of time. It was then rolled into our house and when we turned it on- it worked! Nothing had gone wrong at all, unbelievable.

With the TV intact we were left with not only a very cheap delivery, but also a good story. Still it was certainly not worth the stress and worry and serves as a very good lesson of whynot to do everything on the cheap, and never to trust someone you have just talked to on the phone

Just had the craziest Craig's List experience- has left me exhasuted after hours of nervous tension.
Will explain more tommorrow.

In the mean time check out what some people will do for thier business!

The ideal gift for any business

We are finally moved in!

How it took us 4 days to move our belongings a few blocks I cannot understand. I am utterly bemused as where all our 'stuff' came from. It is incredible to me that we moved down here 9 months ago with just the contents of our sedan. This time around it took 2 U-haul trips and about 12 car loads to relocate. Boxes and boxes of things that we have no idea where to place as they consist of random items, none of which seem to fit in one place or another. At this point we are exceptionally glad that we chose a two bedroom with plenty of storage- the one bedroom with no closets we looked at would have been an utter disaster.
The moving stress being almost over we are just thrilled with our new place- it is spacious and quiet, the new carpets are really nice, two bathrooms com in more useful than I would ever have imagined, the extra space for our many plant pots is a big plus and the high ceilings help to keep things cool.

Now for the unpacking which I suspect will take weeks.

Now that I am a bit settled in California I am thinking of starting up my own small web business. I have thus been faced with all the complexities of registering a business and setting up a Tax ID. The usual bureaucracy you can imagine!
The first thing we need to go is think of a name.

I've had a few ideas;

Aardvark adventures- the idea being we would be first in the phone book.

Sunflower Solutions- after one of San Diego's most distinctive native plants- I'm sure however it will already be taken.

Saffron Solutions- The world’s most expensive commodity by weight.

Dim Cave- A private joke those who know me will understand :-)

and finally Gaia Solutions.

I like Gaia Solutions; Gaia was to be the name of a restaurant I was planning to open with my wife. It encompasses things which are important to me and is both environmental and mythological. If Gaia is taken we can go for Gaian.

My Dad gave me some good general advice for choosing a name.

"Easy to spell and short so that it can be used (or at least a shorter
version of it) as an internet address; check it out to see if it is a
available as a domain name and then register it.

"blank consultants" always sounds important

geographical place names are nice, though not one that is too
identifiable with just one location.

I'm not too keen on made up names (like "exxon", which was chose
because it doesn't mean anything in any known language), nor on cyber
names (though microsoft, for microcomputer software has done okay).

Then there's "apple" which works okay once, but then is overdone.
then there are plant and animal names

maybe a made-up name would be okay as long as it wasn't too cute.
Netflix works well

A lot of companies have gone to just initials, abandoning whatever it
was the initials stood for: BP, MSN, even KFC."


Gaia seems to fit in with this advice, it is certainly short, and relatively easy to spell. We'll see if it's already taken.

Getting really close to moving now.
Pictures are off the walls, boxes are started to be filled.
Superfluous furniture has been sold off on Craig's List.
The U-Haul is booked for Sunday. I hope it's big enough. Unfortunatley the weather for that day is set to be sunny and hot which is wonderful for any other day, but not for the constant lifting of heavy weights, up and down flights of stairs.
Ah well- at least its not raining i guess.

X:Men: (hopefully) The Last Stand

I've been looking forward to X-men III for quite some time now. Though I was never into comic books, the cartoon series of X-men was probably my favorite show as a kid. The first two installments of the live-action film versions were also very good in my opinion--particularly the second. There were inevitable problems here and there about them of course (not a Halle Berry fan, some far-too-cheesy lines, and of course the inevitable problem of feeling they shouldn't have left some of the storylines out), but overall they were quality flicks.

The same cannot be said however for this latest version. For a reason beyond my comprehension, they decided to condense two monumental storylines (Apocalypse attempting to take over the world and Phoenix saving the universe) into a single, relatively short (about 100 minutes) film. In order to do so, they had to completely change the two stories (Apocalypse being completely eliminated and the Phoenix being completely transformed from a cosmic alien lifeforce into merely a subconscious personality of Jean Grey).

Now I'm not one of the people who just moans about films not following the exact storyline of their origin--I didn't have much of a problem with the first two--but the editing and scriptwriting decisions they made for X-men III (not surprisingly, a different director) were simply ill-conceived, with the potential to be something so much better.

All this could have been looked over, however, if the film had quality writing, directing and/or acting. Unfortunately, with the exception of Stewart and McKellan's acting, these three aspects of the film were not simply average, they were atrocious! Characters would die and there was no emotion or gravitas in the scene. Everything was rushed, the dialogue was bad.....ugh!

This film took 3 years to make and it appears that 2 years, 11 months and 29 days of that was spent entirely on the special effects portion (which weren't even that great either). What a waste of time, money and most tragically, an incredible story.