Category — Home Life

A drizzlily day today which is quite welcome after a long dry period. Coolness is appreciated too. Starting to feel a bit like fall… Speaking of fall, yesterday was the start of the new school year. Christen is now a freshman at Parkland High. Seems it was not too long ago she was just starting first grade…. Bookmarks is coming back to Winston again on September 13th. Definitely need to check it out and I plan to stay longer than last year where it was just two hours of time. Really nice lineup of authours. Last year’s highlight was Elizabeth Edwards which upon reflection, seems a bit more poigant now considering what has happened to her since then… Speaking of politics, the Democratic convention kicked off last night. Full bore coverage on all of the cable news networks though the coverage seems to be endlessly fixated on the so-called dispute between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. But I think for the moment, all of that was overshadowed by seeing Senator Ted Kennedy stride onto the stage to give a speech speaking to the themes of the night. But by far the night was  Michelle Obama’s. She gave a superlative speech on family, values and what it is like struggling against the odds and succeeding. It was leavened by heartfelt emotion and vivid imagery that everyone can relate to. As the pace of the election quickens, her ability to reach out to women will be invaluable.

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Filled up the gast tank with premium gas at $3.65/gallon. I think it was that price sometime last winter I believe. It is about 40¢ off from the peak in the summer time. That works about $4 less per fill-up. Does not seem like much but over a month that works about $30 less for gas for two cars. That means we can eat out one more time for the month.

Not sure how long it will last though. A few more tropical storms in the Gulf of Mexico or more disruption in Nigeria or Iraq and we are back to $140/barrel oil prices again.

Being a programmer never was the first thing I imagined my life’s occupation to be growing up. I always had dreams of more adventurous jobs: test pilot, military soldier, doctor. But reality and an understanding of what avenues for success were available to me lead me to business school. Even then, I chose the more glamorous major of marketing with visions of being the key creative person in advertising or marketing campaigns. What I ended up doing after graduation was spending four years in the retail trade working as a retail manager. I did ok in that field but never really excelled as my heart was never in it and I always sought something different. When I left the trade and went home, I had to figure out what I was planning to do with my life. Some research let me to return to college to take up programming and receive a diploma in it. It forever changed my life.

When I first started out in programming, I specialised in the language PowerBuilder. At the time, 1996, it was considered to be the superior of fourth generation programming languages like Visual Basic and consequently it was in high demand. That skill led to jobs in Florida and Europe and I rode it for it was worth. But I always considered myself very forward looking. In this field, employers always were looking for the hottest new solutions to address their business problems. When I returned from Germany, I was aware of Java as the new language of choice for development. In quick fashion I started learning how to use it and for several years as the language grew in size and complexity, I grew along with it. It was with these skills that I found a position in Winston. But times are changing again.

It was two years ago that I sensed that as a leading edge language, Java was fading. That was typical of mature languages. The new trend was towards scripting languages like PHP, Python and Perl, a part of the LAMP paradigm where components were built on open source technologies. So I have a practice of doing my personal programming in PHP. This website and the sub sites run on a PHP engine using MySql as the database. Much easier to use than Java and more widespread today in running web sites. Knowing this language I hope to keep my marketability as a web programmer high in the face of outsourcing and off shoring the very skills that my family depends upon for keeping us comfortable.

Yet I sense a new shift now. These shifts happen way too fast now for me to keep up with them. Web 2.0 technologies are everywhere exemplified by AJAX applications like the ones behind Google Maps. Flash and now Microsoft’s new tool, Silverlight, are making web sites more immersive doing things that even AJAX sites can not do especially in video. As more people acquire faster connections, they yearn for more involved websites with all sorts of eye candy and immediate feedback. In my experience the most useful of websites are those that display information which is best handled through plain html.

So I have a decision to make: do I plunge in and try to learn as many of these various technologies as I can to diversify my skill set to stay competitive in the workforce as a computer programmer? Do I try to become a master of Google’s Web ToolKit APIs? Will it be similar to the experience I had in spending my free time learning the Mobile Java APIs (used in cell phones and PDAs) for several months back in 2000-2001 and then find out that the whole industry demand for the technology had collapsed? Or do I stay with the technologies I know and build on those for there is still a demand for applications that require basic functionality and nothing more.

I am now at an age that I do not have many re-inventions of myself left and with increased family responsibilities, my time is scarce. I may take the plunge or maybe not. For now, I am a computer programmer by trade and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Question is will I stay relevant?

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When I think about my favorite movies, I realised that there are no easy top ten list for me to pick from. My film watching habits over the years has transverse every genre, over many countries and different film eras. It is rare for me to view a film repeatedly. Actually, my problem is that i do not watch enough films anymore considering the demands on my time these days. Still, I think it is worth a shot to try to pin down the films that I felt most entertained, most moved and most deeply affected.

• Citizen Kane - a classic of traditional American film making showing the rise and fall of a William Randolph Hearst type character shot, for its time, in a radical way of film making and cinematography that stands up today
• Excalibur - John Boorman beautiful looking retelling of the King Arthur legend where Camelot dazzles and man’s honor soars, falls and soars once more.
• Charge of the Light Brigade - The first eighty percent of the film is standard 1930’s Hollywood fare of stories of the British Empire but whenever the DVD version comes out, I will replay that glorious charge lead by Errol Flynn over and over again.
• Last of the Mohicans - the version starring Daniel Day Lewis, this adventure story set in a lush wilderness barely touched by man has strong performance by Wes Studi, Lewis and Madeleine Stowe.
• Lord of the Rings trilogy - adventure, magic, an altogether different world, I looked forward to December each year for three years in seeing the new released part. Decembers are not the same anymore. It is a triumph of film making where the personal stories are never overcome by the special effects.
• Farewell to my Concubine - an epic tragedy set during the turmoil within China in the mid 20th century, it is a masterpiece by Kaige Chen with the luminous Gong Li in the starring role.
• Ran - from a director noted for several masterpieces (Seven Samurai, Rashmon, Dreams), Akira Kurosawa retelling of Shakespeare King Lear set in medieval Japan is his greatest film. Battle scenes set against the human drama contained within a family, it should be a must see by anyone who appreciates film.
• Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - western panoramas, humorous dialogue and strong performances by Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, and Lee van Cleef set against the familiar soaring Enrico Morricone’s score, this film defined the western for good against Hollywood’s sanitized version at that time. It must always be seen in the original widescreen for nothing else would do.
• Metropolis -Lang’s futuristic vision still haunts us with its depiction of a society tearing itself apart over class.
• Lawrence of Arabia - brilliant cinematography, a reluctant hero and a nearly true story that needs to be seen in its restored glory. David Lean’s finest
• Zulu - starring Michael Caine and Stanley Baker, this last stand film is a thriller set at the original location of the historical battle of 120 British soldiers holding off three thousand Zulu warriors.
• Raging Bull- in a long line of performances that have diminished in quality lately, this is Robert de Niro’s finest and deserving of an Academy Award of the boxer who can not control his demons
• Tora,Tora,Tora - shot in a documentary style, this is a superior film to the recent Pearl Harbor film. Using real planes and ships and shot on location, you feel that you are seeing a real-life enactment of that day in December

Undoubtly there are other films of a more personal nature and more obscure that I should put on this list but these films should be recognized by most people. Naturally, they lean to the epic and spectacle genre of film but I do a softness for the grandiose visions.

As can be seen from the list, there has not been much in the past few years that really have captured my imagination. Like I said, I have not been able to view many films in the past few years and what I have seen tend to be more escapist fare to pass away the time. I miss the days especially back in the early nineties when I lived in Toronto and I watch films all of the time whether in the theatre or on video. It is was a golden age for me in many respects when it came to film. I do wish I could watch as many films now as I did then but family and work life takes precedence now.

Even though I do have a DVD player, it is virtually unused. Cable television is what I use the television for these days. I even gave up my Netflix membership this past year because I was not watching any films. I would rent them and then they would be sitting there for weeks unwatched and sometimes returned unwatched.

Then again, life changes. Back then, I did not have the Internet or photography to distract me. Now, my free time is seemingly consumed by them. But I do not regret it and if perchance, a film comes on one of the cable television stations that I always desired to see but never took the opportunity to do so, then I may just be able to update my list.

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I wanted to be a test pilot.

From late childhood to late teenage years, I wanted to be a test pilot more than anything else. Notwithstanding that I wore and still is wearing glasses, the idea to be in command of a machine and push it to its limits had its appeal to me. From time to time I would ponder some other occupation like doctor, soldier or explorer but for some reason I kept coming back to the pilot thing. Funny thing is I never flew on a plane until I was eighteen excluding the time which I could not remember when I flew as an infant. Flying on that plane from Newfoundland to Ottawa was a day of unending wonderment and to this day, flying is still quite a special thing with me.

But the test pilot dream was just a dream never fulfilled. I has stabs at other things in the first few years of university: political science, pre-med, chemistry. In fact, it was my brother who actually became the licensed pilot and it was my sister who became the doctor. As for me, I got a business degree which proved its worth in my brief retail management career . Then I received my technology diploma which has lead to a fulfilling career for the most part but not one I dreamt about when I was ten years.

So what would Madeleine dream of becoming when she grows up? A doctor? A ballet dancer? An actress? A pirate? Of course the jobs she will dream about will be the more glamorous ones that she will see on television and film. There are not too many television shows about environmental biologists these days. But I would encourage her to broaden her mind to see what people do in real life and never feel constricted in her choices. She may do many things at different stages of her life. I would teach her that if she works hard enough she may actually make her dreams come through.

Her imagination will be her guide. If she can not be a pirate in real life, then she can play one. I will let her dreams go unbounded. There is plenty of time for her to grow up and confront the real world.

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Today was bulk pickup day in our neighbourhood. As we had just moved into our home this year, we did not have much to put out onto the curb. As it is every year, what gets to be put out to the curb is not what the sanitation department picks up.

I put out my old gas grill which was about 4 years old. I do not know it is about barbecues but they do not last long under regular use no matter how much they cost. The steel just deteriorates under the heat, leaving a brittle rusty shell where the burners are. Everything else is in tip-top shape. It seems that gas grills are probably the most common item you see on the curb for the bulk pickup if it last that long. Along with the grill, we had a television with a broken co-axial cable connection, an old frame, some long flat storage containers and a poster and some odds & ends.

I put these items out on Sunday afternoon as I was going through the garage and within an hour, nearly all of it was gone. It seems that my junk is high quality junk worth picking up unlike my neighbour across the street who had a pickup load of stuff including furniture in decent shape just sitting there all week long. As usual, scavengers precede the bulk pick up looking for salvageable items. I think every day, pickups will be going through the neighourhood seeing what was put out on the curb. If there was metal involved, then there was a good chance it would be taken. In a lot of pickup dumps I could see other gas grills and lawnmowers and steel frames. My neighbour’s furniture did have some interest for someone as they apparently took the brass handles off every drawer.

This morning, the crews were out and I was impressed by the size of the operation. Four garbage trucks were moving through the subdivision along with a flatbed truck with an attached crane for the heavy loads. A supervisor in a pickup was also in the vicinity. If you did not have your stuff out there in the morning first thing, then you missed your chance. As it was, scavengers were still prowling the neighhourhood getting what scraps they could ahead of the sanitation trucks.

So that bit of business is now taken care of for another year. I still have a garage full of items that need to see a garage sale to clear them out. What is left over from that will go to charity and hopefully we will get some breathing room in the garage.

No one denies that we are in an economy that is in some difficulty. The degree of difficulty you are encountering depends on where you live in the United States. Here in North Carolina, I figure we are right now in the middle of the pack… not too bad but not the best either. Of course, this situation could change very quickly.

So what would it take for the economy to rebound. The usual solution is that people will get laid off, the government lowers interest rates, companies lower prices and then people start spending again. Yet, that recipe for success is unlikely to work again any time soon. First of all the government through the Federal Reserve has lower the cost of borrowing as low as it can. The effective rate is 0% when you factor in inflation and the key point there is inflation.

Usually, when corrective factors are applied to an economy in recession, it is because inflation as a factor is usually minimal and for the past two decades or so, inflation has been historically low for a long stretch. Not now, though.

Everyone knows that the price of gas is at all-time high times. But slightly less talked about is the price increases at the grocery store. If the cart seems to be getting less for the money, then that is probably true. High fuel prices are responsible for a large part of that, for the transportation costs factoring in along with fertilizers made from petroleum and even the bio fuels which are consuming large amount of corn which would have gone to feedstock for cattle and poultry which means higher costs for meat.

What all of this means is that people in such inflationary times are going to have less to spent on other consumer good which means that the big engine of the US economy, the consumer can not be relied on to get the economy out of the rut.

But getting back to the grocery store.

I do most of the grocery shopping for the family which came out the fact that I used to do most of the cooking for the family. Since Andrea has been home for the past few months, she has done most of the cooking but I still do the grocery shopping.

I have been quite aware that in one way that manufacturers are trying to hold the line on their food prices is making their products smaller. I think the more well known of grocery shrinkage is the ice cream container which has shrunk by 10% for many brands. But not all items lend themselves to shrinkage and that means prices go up.

Beef is nearly impossible to buy now with prices at $8-12/pound for basic cuts. Forgot about steaks unless they are on a sale. Bread costs more. Milk costs more; I recall a 2qt container was about 2.69, now it is 3.19. Produce is out of sight; corn, salad greens and the list goes on.

There is not a lot I can do about the prices. Not much I can do about the grocery items I need every week if I want to keep my family healthy. But I can change the way I shop.

First of all, I have to avoid impulse buying. It is a bad habit of mine that when I am at the store to pick up things that look interesting to try out but ended up in the cupboard or freezer unused for quite awhile. If we actually set down a menu for the week and buy groceries to the menu, I think that would remove unnecessary items. Of course, the downside is that you lose some flexibility in doing something different from what you have planned. Related to this is buying things for a recipe that you would not ever use anytime soon again. Spices are the real offender here. A bottle from the shelf goes for $3-4. That is a luxury that I can not afford anymore considering that like most people, only a dozen or so spices are regularly used. Perhaps, it is time to grow my herb wheel.

It would not hurt if we scale back on the junk food snacks. I think my cart sometimes is half filled with too much snacks and not enough real food. It still come down to setting down a menu and then translating that menu into a proper list.

Another problem we have is that I am a heavy coupon user. Sad to say, coupons have not been useful now as they were in the past. If there is any time for coupons, it is in this sort of economy. Anyways, one problem with coupons is that sometime they like to introduce new things which I sometimes buy. This is called buying to the coupon rather than to the need. I need to stop doing that and I focus on what is on the list.

We are pretty heavy user also of private label brands. Quality is never as good as the most popular manufacturers but the price just can not be beat. Even with coupons, popular brands still are much more expensive than the private labels. There are some things I will not compromise on like laundry degerent but the greater limitation is that there are for the most part, no private label alternatives to many of the things we buy.

A good thing to do so to remain on track is leave all the cards and checkbooks behind and just take cash to the grocery store. You can not spend what you do not have on hand. Far too long, I toss something into the cart with the point it is only $1.25. Thing is ten of those sort of items end up adding $15-20 to the overall cost of the cart. Staying focus on what you can afford requires effort and being constrained by the amount of money you have on hand does help.

One option for us use a warehouse store like Costco or Sam’s Club. For items like paper products, we have found it useful but the problem I have with those stores is typically, I overbuy and get things like puff pastry appetizers that we really do not need and things like 2000ct of vitamins that would take months to go through. If we are going to shop there, we have shop smarter.

All of this will help us in dealing with the grocery bill but in the end, we will have to simply downscale our eating habits. More pasta, less meat. Smaller meals, no more feasts. Less snack and an emphasis on eating healthier. Waste less especially on expensive produce. We probably will not realise a lot of savings or none at all if grocery prices keep rising but at the very least we can keep them under control.

For much of my life, I took some pride in my first name ‘Brian’. When I was growing up, I recall encountering only one other ‘Brian’. When I watched television or films, or read books or magazines, ‘Brian’ was a name that was rarely used. When I entered university and met more people and started to travel more outside of my limited areas, ‘Brian’s became a bit more common. It was not until I moved to Toronto and then some time later to the United States, that I began encountering more ‘Brian’s in person and in general through overhearing conversations. In media, ‘Brian’ as a character name became more frequent and not just as a supporting character either. In the beginning, I actually felt proud when a main character had ‘Brian’ as his first name though that novelty has since worn off. It appeared that around the time I was born, ‘Brian’ as a name became more popular and remained so for several years but has declined recently as a choice in favor of trendier names. Still, a generation (ages 30-42 currently) exists that is now moving into positions of influence so ‘Brian’ will be a name that will be heard more often.

My last name of ‘Leon’ has always been a source of pride for me. I though that the ‘Leon’ name was the property of a chosen few, a few pockets scattered throughout North America and France. Apparently, as it appears that Leon, a name of Spanish and French origins, is quite prevalent across many demographic groups. Not as common as ‘Smith’ mind you, but not a name that is dying out anytime soon either. For much my recent life, when I introduce myself, I pronounced my name as ‘Lee-ON’ which most people would pronounce it in North America but I rather prefer to pronounce it as ‘LE-on’ with a distinct nasal pronunciation on the last syllable as the French would pronounce it. Many people especially in the South of the United States have troubles pronouncing it that way so to make things easier, I just let them pronounce it to the way they are accustomed.

Still, when you put my name together, ‘Brian Leon’, I though that was a pretty much rare combination, shared maybe a couple of people. Well, no. A Google search on name will bring up a:

• vice-president of a Smoothie company in Ontario
• an engineer professor at USC in California
• building contractor also in California
• an editor of the Leto High School student newspaper in Tampa, Florida
• and a furniture designer and store owner also in California
  (so many ‘Brian Leon’s in California, who knew?)

In fact, I do not show up anywhere in the Google lists for the first 100 or so hits. I may have to do some advertising to boost my Google popularity.

So my name is not unique in this world. Not any part of it. But I take pride in my name for it is a good name, a pleasing sounding name. My mother has named me well and she would probably say to me that even if my name is not unique, I am definitely one of a kind.