Category — Personal

I enjoy reading mysteries, especially the classics (“Golden Age”).  I have no interest in police procedural novels.  Most of the time I’m not interested in hard-boiled detectives (e.g. Mickey Spillane).  I remember one time listening on XM radio to a old time radio detective show – it was filled with over the top metaphors and cliches.

But the best hard-boiled writers are good.  To be exact, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett are good, and I’ve read most of their stories.  Recently, I bought Chandler’s The Simple Art of Murder — and of course I read it immediately, and enjoyed it.  Those short stories are a nice change from the Marlowe novels.

But I don’t agree with his introductory essay on detective novels.  Chandler says the goal of fiction is realism — but it’s not: fiction exists to tell a story, whether sung by a bard, recited by a poet, printed in a novel, or shown on a movie screen.  Ideally, fiction should tell a story about interesting characters with style, and illuminate part of the fascinating world we live in, a world filled with all kinds of people (I strongly agree with Chandler that there is no such thing as a boring topic).

No fiction is realistic: Chandler and Hammett are not exceptions.  Hammett’s The Gutting of Couffignal is no more realistic than The Red House.  Chandler’s stories, set in Los Angeles, make Los Angeles sound like what I imagine Las Vegas was like in its gangster days.   If Chandler was realistic, his stories would’ve ended quickly, because his detective would’ve been shot and killed, or retired with multiple concussions, instead of persisting through many narrow escapes and thorough beatings.

And I don’t doubt that LA has had, and still has, many problems with gangsters, gangs, and murder, but I don’t think his stories ever matched the typical life of most inhabitants of Los Angeles.   Frankly, I suspect Las Vegas was never really like its gangster image for most people, either.

I could argue that for a murder novel, you need to talk about those who are likely to deal with murder, such as detectives, gangsters, and the police.  But I don’t believe most murder and violence were (or are) caused by gangsters.

And it’s definitely not realistic today.  Where I live, most murders aren’t gang related; none of them sound at at all like something from Chandler or Hammett.  There aren’t any gambling joints.  Frankly, Jane Austen is a lot more realistic — I know several people who sure act a lot of characters in her novels.

But realistic ficture isn’t what we want.  Heck, even look at “reality” TV — of course, it’s time compressed to only show the more interesting interactions, and the producers try to set the show up to generate conflict.   I know most of my life wouldn’t make for a interesting novel.

If you like beautiful food pictures , you should visit Little Bear (xiao xiong)’s blog (note that you need Chinese character support to see the site properly)  She is a Taiwanese lady currently living in Britain who loves to cook, and certainly takes great pictures — I get hungry just looking at the pictures.

Of course, it’s much better if you can can read Chinese, although many of her creations have titles in English (as does her book, The Taste of My Life).  But even if you can’t (like me), it’s still worth checking out for the always great pictures and sometimes very creative recipes.  Just don’t expect to be able to recreate the dishes without knowing Chinese — for example, the green layer at the bottom of her luscious looking desert on the cover of The Taste Of My Life is made from peas.

Another good food site is Clove Garden — the pictures aren’t as artistic, but it’s in English.

Me getting old?  Not so good.  Wine getting old?  Very good.

I’ve been enjoying drinking some wine I bought some years ago, back when I visited the Sonoma wine country often.  Then I didn’t drink much wine for 3-4 years.  It’s interesting to taste the difference the years make.

Some say that wines have a peak age — they don’t taste as good before or after that time.  I agree — and I love the taste of properly aged red wines.

So what have I been drinking?

• 1999 J Fritz Old Vine Zinfandel — an excellent wine even when new (~2001), it’s even better now; smoother, more mellow but still with a strong tannic afterbite.
• 2001 Beringer Nouveau red table wine — pretty nice now.  Again, it’s mellow and smooth; I suspect it’s at its peak.
• 1999 Pinot white wine — didn’t age well, I only ended up drinking a bit.  In general, whites don’t age well.

I’m looking forward to tasting how my other wines have aged (such as a Rabbit Ridge Barbera).

My favorite coffee, Lavazza Qualita Rossa, brought back from Italy by a co-worker.  Lavazza does not sell whole bean Qualita Rossa in the US.  They do sell Qualita Oro in whole bean, but I prefer the Qualita Rossa.

A close up of green tea.  A special friend brought back packages of loose green tea and jasmine tea (my favorite) from China.  Part of the tea is very fine, and doesn’t work well in a typical American tea ball.

The solution?  A good tea pot.  Here is mine; it’s a 900 ml Chinese model from 99 Ranch (it was on sale for $5).  It’s not a surprise that it works very well with Chinese tea. The fine mesh keeps the tea in, and I like that the mesh goes all the way to the bottom – I typically only make 12-16 oz of tea at a time; 12 oz of water is just over the bottom of the strainer.  The quality is acceptable – workmanlike, but nothing extraordinary. The handle is a little wobbly, and you can see weldmarks on the strainer. I think it will last at least a few years, but not a few decades.

Bodum makes designer tea pots. Most of the Bodum tea pots are actually tea presses designed to work with tea bags (supposedly the Bodum design eliminates any bitterness); I don’t think it would work as well with my Chinese tea.  The holes look a little large, allowing tea leaves to get into the tea drink, and the holes don’t go all the way down.

I don’t care for most of Bodum’s designs, and they can be very pricey (the Bora Bora is nice, but $150 for a tea pot?).  But I do really like the Assam Line I (shown above; photos re-arranged from the Bodum web site).  It’s a nice size for me (16 oz), the quality is definitely better than my Chinese pot, and the price (about $25), while pricey compared to my tea pot, is much less than the others I like (the $50 Classic or the Bora Bora).  From the boxes I’ve been able to examine, it appears the Assam Line I is made in Germany, and the Assam Line III (about $35) is made in China.  If I’m going to buy an expensive, fancy European brand tea pot, I want it to be made in Europe, not China.  I haven’t seen any reasonable prices for the Assam on eBay, so while I might get one (new or used) eventually, it’s not going to be anytime soon.

I do like Bodum’s Chocolatiere.  It’s a simple, reliable, non-electrical design that’s classic. It’s occasionally seen on eBay, at both reasonable (<$15 with shipping) and unreasonable prices.

Tony

Yes, this blog is mainly about factory automation software, but since it’s my personal blog, I get to have fun every once in a while (but I do have one rule: no politics).

I recently installed a set of Tot-loks on a cabinet to keep out my toddler who wants to be a monkey (she’s good at climbing). Here are my notes:

• They’re more expensive than the normal spring latches; the deluxe starter kit cost about $20 (that kit comes with one magnetic key and four locks).
• Sometimes they are the only solution; for example, if the door does not have enough of a gap for a spring latch and doesn’t have knobs. Plus, they are better looking, since nothing is visible outside the door, even if you could use something like this.
• They are more work to install and require more modification, since you have to drill a 9/32″ hole almost through the door for the magnetic pickup in addition to driving at least four screws (six is better, but four seems OK).  If you remove the lock later you will have a noticeable (9/32″) hole in the door.
  • I didn’t happen to have a 9/32″ drill bit for my handy Skil drill/driver, but I was successfully able to use a 1/4″ drill bit.
  • The latch plate uses two screws.  The lock part has six screw holes, but it seems to work well with just the front two.
• Like spring latches, you do need to test that you have installed it correctly.  If possible, test first making sure you can get the door open without using the magnetic key.
  • Of course, it’s often not easily to properly test and still know you can get the door open.  However, I had one lock that refused to open while I was trying to get it all lined up.
  • One way is to check the latch operation (making sure it opens strong using the key) with the door open.  The latch also needs enough space to work, but that can be tricky to check without closing the door.  Maybe using some strong (but not too strong) double stick tape on the latch plate before screwing would help – the tape should be strong enough that you can test operation, but weak enough you can force the door open without excessive force.
  • As always, you have to make sure the latch lines up with the latch plate.
  • The magnetic pickup part (you’ll probably need to use at least one extension piece) has to be close enough to the outer edge of the door to work.
  • The latch needs some space to work.  If it’s jammed against the latch plate, it will not be able to retract.  Sometimes my opening procedure is: push the door back a bit (to give the latch some room), wiggle the key around until I hear the latch retract, open the door while holding the key in place, and then replacing the key in its normal location (don’t forget it inside the cabinet!).
• I highly recommend buying extra key and keeping it somewhere else – just in case you’re forgetful and lock your magnetic key in the cabinet.  (I just might have some experience with this…)
• The lock can be broken with a screwdriver and a lot of force (handy in case you just locked your one key inside the cabinet, or you didn’t adjust the lock properly during installation).  So far my experience indicates you have a 50% chance of breaking the lock (thankfully, my sample size is very small).

Tony

Even for the rich, sometimes a perfect product doesn’t exist. Take double baby strollers. The perfect double baby stroller would be light (<20 lbs), narrow enough to easily navigate normal doors, sidewalks, and store aisles (so the kids can’t grab merchandise), be fairly short, have lots of storage, fold compactly, be durable, and not cost a small fortune.

The reality is that it’s physically impossible to build the perfect stroller, so they all have compromises. Almost all double strollers are over 20 lbs, typically over 25 lbs, which is pretty heavy for many women. I’ve found one light stroller, the Peg Perego Aria, which is very wide and not well regarded.

The MacLaren Twin strollers have a better reputation, but are heavier, and are still very wide – definitely not a good stroller to take on a shopping trip. You can get a narrow, roomy stroller with a Graco Duoglider or similar tandem stroller – and feel like you’re driving a train, especially when putting it away (the heaviest is almost 40 lbs).

Jogging strollers are wide and heavy, and I’m skeptical of how small they fold. If you’re not concerned about cost, Phil & Ted’s sport buggy is narrow and short, because it stacks one kid on top of the other (which I don’t like – the bottom child gets a bad view).

If the older kid likes to stand, the Sit and Stand strollers are a good option – they’re narrow and relatively short, but not so good if both children like to sit.

The best compromise for me? The Austrian-designed Marco Sky L. It looks good, fits perfectly in my car’s trunk, is narrow, is as short as a large single stroller (many people don’t realize it’s a double), attracts attention, and has nice big wheels. At about 26 lbs it’s not light, it’s storage is useless (I hang bags over the handles), is hard to push with one hand, and isn’t officially sold in the U.S. It wouldn’t be good for twins, but it’s still my favorite.

Oh, and if I were a rich man, I could solve the double stroller problem – by hiring a nanny.

Tony

This April is a busy month for me both personally (at least my taxes are done!) and professionally, so I don’t expect to post much until May. I’ve upgraded the blog software, but this site’s appearance needs more attention.

Tony